#tw colonization

so! my first point.

russia has never been a monocultural country. there are currently 190 peoples in russia (more than 40 peoples are indigenous), without unrecognized indigenous peoples like the sakhalin ainu.

even during the times of kievan rus, there were many tribes on this territory (not only slavic), like merya, muroma and meshchera (they were assimilated by russian settlers in these territories) and also karelian, vepsian, saami and many other uralic tribes (now peoples) in the north. they were quickly colonized during the times of disintegration of kievan rus' (12-13th centuries), but retained their culture and identity. but russian colonization rarely was completely peaceful. for example, siege of kazan (1552) was massacre of indigenous tatar population. the conquest of siberia (11-19th centuries) was accompanied by genocide of the indigenous population. circassian genocide in 19th century. and much more, because listing everything that the russian empire and then the soviet union did would be difficult and long.

thank you unknown person with username auri_nat on r/mapporn for this map

so, what's next after brief dive in russian history? my second point. population statistics.

the titular people of russia are, of course, russians (according to the 2020 census, there are 80.85% of them/105.6 million out of 130.6 million) and other 19,15%/25 million people are non-russian.

also, the majority of the most numerous peoples are made up of some indigenous peoples:

tatars (together with siberian, astrakhan and other) — 3,20%

chechens — 1,14%

bashkorts (more often called bashkirs) — 1,07%

chuvash people — 0,73%

avars (one of many dagestani peoples) — 0,69%

dargins (one of many dagestani peoples) — 0,43%

but not all native peoples are recognized as indigenous. only indigenous minority peoples of the north, siberia, and the far east of russia (peoples whose numbers are less than 50k people) are called indigenous, so tatars, bashkorts and other aren't recognised as indigenous, but they are recognized as ethnic minorities (honestly? bruh)

this is the closest map of indigenous minority peoples of the north, siberia, and the far east of russia i could find ngl

since the 1930s, the indigenous population has been declining due to the curtailment of the indigenization policy and because of the repressions against the indigenous intelligentsia and ordinary people, as well as the deportation of many indigenous peoples during and after world war ii. and this continues today due to the decline and refusal in the teaching of indigenous languages and the disproportionate mobilization of indigenous men into war (even those who should have been protected from it because of the small number of their people)

yes, it's too much to explain for a simple topic about some game, but it's important to know. russia is not entirely russian and also is not entirely slavic. russia is multicultural country, always was and always will be. many people have this false idea about russia as one nation country and this is :/ like. this country has been called a prison of nations since the times of the ussr!

okay, let's continue. finally, genshin. my third point. already existing non-russian and non-slavic inspiration in snezhnayan (and nod-krai) characters.

first one is, obviously, childe. it's a fact that the developers were inspired by the cossacks when designing hos gameplay. cossacks are mostly associated with ukrainians.

one of festivals in snezhnaya is krsnik noc. this is obviously czech and polish, like, i'm sorry, but as slavic mythology nerd, i can say that kresnik is west slavic, not east slavic.

nod-krai was obviously inspired by baltic and finnic cultures. lauma is named after baltic goddess lauma/laumė; aino is named after character from finnic (not finnish!!!) epic kalevala; columbina's name kuutar is name of karelian moon goddess.

nod-krai in general has many karelian words ngl. like. hiisi island, lempo isle, etc. also kuuvahki is pretty much obviously from karelian kuuväki (moon power)

not related to game, but genshin made ads with buryat culture for collab.

so, nod-krai is great, but it's still autonomous territory. what about snezhnaya itself, ńoakka?

and to be honest... we can't say yet. but! here is my fourth point. electro boy from one of snezhnaya trailers.

my bbg </3

okay, many people noticed from the very beginning that his headdress looks like a kichka. but! he also has mansi or just uralic ornaments. i am karelian and even i can say that this is very close to uralic ornaments.

but you know what else? judging by the leaks, sakha (yakut) culture was also used to create his design. like. there is literally a photo of sakha shaman.

it's obvious that this electro boy isn't completely slavic inspired/isn't slavic inspired at all. it's hard to judge based on just one character, but there is hope.

so, what is this whole yapping for?

i wanted to remind you that russia isn't a monocultural country. it's not even a completely white country. we have large non-white and especially indigenous population. so no, snezhnaya isn't russian and isn't slavic. if everything goes as i think, we will have a natlan situation (unfortunately).

What was Spain’s surprise then, when he spotted his black-clad somber figure sitting on the last row of the audience chamber like a sinister crow, watching de las Casas argue for the fifth day straight.

“I didn’t think you’d come,” he told him honestly and excitedly, coming to find him outside of the audience chamber at the end of the day while the crowd dispersed and conversation about the day’s discussions sparked loudly all around him. Intellectuals and theologians debating amongst themselves the merits of Aristotle’s definition of the natural slave and if it could and should be applied to their American colonies. Spain felt that they had made incredible progress since the beginning of these talks, but there was still so much more that he hoped would be accomplished.

“You invited me,” Portugal said simply, his voice sounding a little too dry to Spain’s ears and he looked him over a little more carefully, squinting his eyes slightly at him, his excitement giving way to wariness.

“Did you enjoy today’s debate?” he asked guardedly, but Portugal shrugged, glancing back at the open door to the debate chamber. “Perhaps we could discuss it over dinner,” he offered, diplomatically, testing the waters. Portugal was spending more and more time overseas these days, he hardly saw him for most of the year unless it was for official business between their crowns.

“What exactly do you hope to achieve here?”

It was the way he said it, in retrospect, that made Spain angry, not the question itself. It was how it sneaked under Spain’s excitement and attacked his unguarded sensibilities, how it poked at his insecurities until they were raw and swollen and inflamed. It was the way Portugal looked at him when his eyes returned to his face after glancing at the now empty space where he had seen his best philosophers and theologians discuss the rights of their new subjects in the colonies for the better part of the last few days and speak of it as if it had no more consequence than a debate on the merits of building their churches with two or three bell towers. Suddenly he felt foolish, gaping at Portugal without response, which in turn only made him angrier.

“What do you mean?”

Portugal shrugged again, glancing at the chatting groups around them, Spain’s anger building and building the longer it took for him to make his point.

“You’re letting de las Casas argue for five straight days while his opponent only had a few hours to state his case, it seems like you’re favoring one more heavily than the other. Why have a debate at all if your King has already made up his mind? Why not just have him decree it as law?”

“Because it’s important,” Spain said, shoulders set and jaw tight, and he could see Portugal straightening his back in front of him in response to his evident rising anger. “It’s important that these are ideas are discussed and accepted, not just imposed.”

“But they’re not being discussed with the colonists, are they?” Portugal countered, leveling him a hard look that only fueled the fire growing inside Spain. “What’s to stop them for disregarding your orders?”

“Because we’ll have them arrested if they do!” he shouted, attracting the curious glanced of the nearby scholars, feeling his face heat up with his temper. “They’ll have to obey or they’ll be facing the consequences!”

"And what consequences will those be?"

He glared at him, but Portugal continued to look at him with that infuriating calm, that maddening calm that made him want to throw a punch at his serious circumspect expression, made him want to get under his skin and make him feel as exposed and hypocritical as Spain felt.

“I’ll ask again,” Portugal said, and Spain had to curl his hands into fists by his sides not to hurt him, his anger corrupting the pull he felt on the bottom of his stomach that insisted on gravitating towards Portugal, making him want to push him away instead of bringing them closer together. “What are you hoping to achieve here?”

He glared at him through tightly clenched teeth and Portugal huffed softly through his nose, glancing around.

“If you don’t have the stomach for an Empire, you probably shouldn’t have one.”

He commended himself for keeping his composure until Portugal's dark figure had turned on his heel and disappeared down the hall, only yelling out a long string of curses after he was well out of earshot.

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