In Moldova, Kazakhstan and Georgia, Russia is one of their own

Estonia maintains a clear distance from Russia, while many Georgians, Kazakhs and Moldovans see themselves as sharing the same space and world with it, ethnologist and anthropologist Aimar Ventsel writes in an opinion article published by ERR.

Ventsel recently spent about a month in Georgia, visiting several places from Adjara to Kakheti, as well as parts of central Georgia. He also visited northern Kazakhstan, mainly around Karaganda, in April, and spent several months in Moldova a few years ago.

Spending longer periods in different former Soviet republics can provide an opportunity to reflect on a number of issues, he writes.

Economically and institutionally, the Baltic states are the most developed among the fragments of the former Soviet Union. It is difficult to say which country leads, although Estonians would naturally like to think it is Estonia. Neither Lithuania nor Latvia can be denied the same view.

Estonia stands out most in one respect: the Soviet Union is less of a reference point here. Although Estonia also frequently mentions its Soviet past, this happens far less often than in the post-Soviet countries Ventsel has visited. Estonia can be said to have left its Soviet past behind and to be looking ahead.

Georgia, by contrast, is a complete disaster in this regard, Ventsel writes. It is very difficult to find anyone over 40 who does not eventually start talking about the Soviet Union or comparing life with the period “under the Communists”. In Georgia, the word “Communist” is not always an insult.

Ventsel says he has also met people, mainly business owners, who believe that life is better now because they can pursue their own business without restrictions and that success depends above all on willingness and skills.

In many cases, however, the comparison with present-day Georgia is that “it was better under the Communists”. In entire regions of Georgia, the collapse of the Soviet Union brought not only the loss of jobs but also the disappearance of electricity, gas and cheap subsidised food.

Comparisons with the Soviet era also frequently arise in Kazakhstan, although not in a praising manner. Kazakhs still remember how they were not only a minority in their own country but also second-class citizens.

Russians and Ukrainians who arrived from across the Soviet Union, and perhaps the occasional Estonian, repeatedly told Kazakhs that they should be grateful for having been brought “civilisation” and “culture”, which had transformed nomadic pastoralists into “civilised” people.

This was accompanied by the suppression of Kazakh culture and language. Islam, which is central to Kazakh identity to such an extent that it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between being Muslim and being Kazakh, was pushed underground.