Thread by @maksymeristavi

for centuries russians did not shy away from calling themselves colonizers and a colonial empire. #RussianColonialism civilizing mission became an official ideology already in 18th century

by 19th century russia has been actively appropriating western colonial lingo and describing the vast portfolio of stolen lands as “colonies”

russian government offices were stacked with western journals about colonialism and history books about western colonies. there was even a semi-official government periodical about colonization

however, there was also apparently a notable resistance to the western colonial lingo among russian ruling elites – they were scared it will provoke separatism among the colonized nations. the colonizers preferred colonizing without calling it colonialism — the tradition lives on

instead, more obscure ‘asiatic russia’ became a common substitute for ‘colonies’: ‘The lands of Asiatic Russia," an official publication of the administra tion declared in 1914, "are an irremovable and inseparable part of our state, and at the same time, our only colony."

to the day, when russians want to describe someone as inferior, they’d often use “asiatic” tropes or racist slurs accentuating the target’s non-whiteness or ‘asianness’

this is all from fascinating Willard Sunderland’s 2010 essay “The Ministry of Asiatic Russia: The Colonial Office That Never Was but Might Have Been” - trying to figure out why russia never developed an explicit ministry of colonies, like other colonial empires