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the SOVIET COLONIAL MYTH of “FRIENDSHIP of PEOPLES”

Our new text on imperial ideology under the cover of an “emancipatory” smoke screen published on @syg.ma.editorial

Sometimes narratives of domination and alienation sound friendly. Under the guise of important concepts familiar to many—such as friendship or solidarity—authoritarian political regimes build structures of subjugation and propaganda. This is exactly what happened with the Soviet concept of “Friendship of Peoples.” A very personal feeling familiar to everyone was overlaid with monuments and loyalty parades, sharply polarizing society and distinguishing between “us” and “them.” This space of politically constructed “Friendship” very clearly defined the conditions under which so-called “Friendship” was to take place.

Soviet narratives cannot be viewed in a vacuum — merely as historical phenomena of their time. The ideology, concepts and wordings that emerged and were popularised at various stages of the Soviet period travel across time and live on in the present as transformed concepts. In the current election campaign in Russia (2026), the United Russia party—Vladimir Putin’s backyard—is using the “Friendship of Peoples” concept for its advertising. It is therefore important to consider ‘Friendship of Peoples’ not only as a Soviet internationalist, romanticised phenomenon in its own form, but also in terms of how these ideas are received within contemporary Russian ideology, political and public discourse or among the neo-imperial thinkers, who sometimes are described as Neo-Eurasianist.

Keep reading the whole thing on Sygma via the link in profile ~~>
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We are happy to present you our first-ever printed book. It includes essays on the environmental consequences of Soviet and Russian policies in O‘zbekiston, Qazaqstan, Moldova, Armenia, Palessie Lowland (situated mostly in Belarus and Ukraine), as well as the Tuvan Republic and the Nogai Steppe in current-day Russia.

Authors:
Shaxrizoda Ergasheva, Vitalie Sprînceană, Julietta Grigoryan, XYANA, Alisher Khassengaliyev, Odot’ To’xtash, Eugene Yin
@umrbahori @xyana.xyz @alialihandro_cher @vtlspr @zhduliet

Editing: Beda Collective
Design: @katischsch @e.emitu
Language: English
Publisher: oi publishing @oi.publishing @de_colonialanguage
Edition: 200 copies
2026

Get your printed copy on our Patreon and support our work. Link in bio.
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