Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.55.3.2
Internal Colonization and the Phenomenon of Moscow-phobia in Russian Province Regions
Nadezhda K. Radina
orcid.org/0000-0001-8336-1044
; National Research University Higher School of Economics, Department of Social Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Mariia V. Koskina
; State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of History, Binghamton, USA
Abstract
The article presents the results of investigation of the social phenomenon
of Moscow-phobia based on empirical data that include 881 interviews taken in the
Nizhny Novgorod region in 2002 and 2014. The analysis of Moscow-phobia builds on
Alexander Etkind’s thesis that internal colonization reproduces cultural distance.
The findings are explained in the context of two theories of internal colonization,
Marxist and post-colonial. Earlier, Rossman described five concepts of Moscow-phobia
based on territorial economic inequalities and the political hegemony of the center.
This study complements the list with the new forms, as the participants express their
anxiety centered on the cultural distance and the domination of province.
Thus, the central argument of this article is that contemporary Russia incorporates both
trends (decolonization and reproduction of internal colonialism) in the relationship
between the “center” (the capital) and the “periphery” (the regions).
Keywords
internal colonization; Moscow-phobia; capital; city; territorial inequality
Hrčak ID:
190672
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2017.
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