Remnants of Belonging: Crimean Krymchak Cultural Preservation in the Face of Discursive Cleansing
Remnants of Belonging: Crimean Krymchak Cultural Preservation in the Face of Discursive Cleansing

Summary/Abstract: In this essay, we analyse unsettlements, deterritorialisations, displacements, forced migrations and seizures of ancestral lands as intrinsic to (non)belonging. We focus, specifically, on Indigenous Krymchak people of the Crimean Peninsula and efforts to preserve elements of Krymchak knowledge, language and heritage against encroaching Russification and Russian ‘discursive cleansing’ (Finnin, 2022) aimed at removing linguistic, cultural and other identity attributes associated with Indigeneity. Countering discursive cleansing, language revitalisation is central to correcting oppressions of Indigenous peoples. Extending Anishinaabe scholar Gerald Vizenor’s theorising to Indigenous peoples of Ukraine and Crimea, we analyse how cultural preservation and public history function as mechanisms of survivance. We analyse how Putin’s rhetoric and action, designed to annihilate Indigenous claims to cultural heritage beyond Russian mythos, may deepen erasure of Krymchak existence. Finally, through the lens of politics of preservation, we examine cultural heritage preservation indicators of Krymchak existence prior to a long series of intentional displacements.

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