Thread by @HansGutbrod

"Rethinking Colonialism" in context of #Ukraine, w @yermolenko_v, John Lee Anderson @peterpomeranzev moderated by Nino Japiashvili, parallel session, crowded room.

.@yermolenko_v Western colonialism was overseas, emphasized difference, RU colonialism was on land, and the domination was based on claim of sameness, "you are unable to be different", therefore focus on #memory, we are only in the beginning of analyzing this. #Ukraine

"dragging people down into the a state of sameness" also as theme for @peterpomeranzev , as illustrated by the cellars as a theme of war in Ukraine: in which people hide, survive; get tortured & killed; Russia has not been able to be deal with its own traumas & ends up repeating.

the other theme is sh%t, in places of occupation, illustrating that there is not a positive vision to share, just a context of sewage to drag down to.

John Lee Anderson: liberation movements in power in many places, second generation in charge, Kalashnikovs in flags; VVP has managed to claim some continuity, skipping over the end of Soviet Union.

John Lee Anderson: indeed many colonialisms, w different ideas of mixing, ideas of cultural link to Spain (also Portugal), different role of indigenous groups.
Russki Mir parallel to link to Spain, that view is not challenged.

one difference, @yermolenko_v in Eastern Europe a lot of transfer: RU integrating UKR and Georgians; taking over several Western concepts (centralization); romanticism at core of "narodnost"; Bolshevism as victory of Westernizers -- but then built horrible anti-West empire.

why are Russians so uncomfortable w Ukrainians? They, @yermolenko_v says, understand that UKR has a deep history, makes them uneasy. Therefore "try to annex the past", try to say "'we were there' even if they were not there".

"They understand that they are not as imperial as they want to be." @yermolenko_v
Europe as excentric, Rome taking over Greek, but adapting; Roman law spreading; build on different pasts, polygenesis; Russia, by contrast, in battle with the past.

How Pushkin & Lermontov describe Caucasus: "something that has a past, but does not have a future." In the end, part of RU trauma.
(Again, just sketching the discussion here: original points of course usually w more nuance.)

.@peterpomeranzev growing up in UK, we thought of colonialism as past and quaint, laughed at those still hanging on; but we did not know anything about massacres, concentration camps, we did not deal with it fully.

very clever switch by Boris Johnson: "we are a colony of Brussels" to argue for Brexit.
"UK was very very imperfect in dealing with past, but a f&5kload better than Russia."

Q: Giga Bokeria, Western civilization is as good as it's gotten so far, why not stay on that message? Why not just see it as Cold War? Why link Brexit into this discussion?
PP: the point was more on media needing to understand audience, no equivalence.

In terms of defending freedom, "language gets old", and the work of language is to refresh it, that is work of artists & writers, implying the language of Cold War may not do it.

risk of a "tyranny of repentance" for the West, it does need to think in terms of strength, too @yermolenko_v -- countries of East can give a lot to West, in terms of faith into oneself, too, to stand up to RU and China.

"can we combine discourse of sovereignty also with discourse of inclusion & human rights? If not, we may lose the battle." @yermolenko_v at @TbilisiZeg

Russia pursuing as a "lose-lose logic" -- I am ready to suffer, as long as you suffer. Parts of the culture of violence, says @yermolenko_v