Вил Мирзаянов - State Secrets - An Insider's Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program

Oddly enough, the U.S.S.R. Communist leaders managed to use the UN to protect the integrity of their colonial empire, while they were demagogically struggling to deprive their Western partners (England, France, Belgium, etc.) of their own colonies. A certain peculiar but interesting thesis was invented and circulated stating that colonies were only those (conquered) territories that were located across the ocean. When even the “Slavic brothers” (Belarus, Ukraine) bordering on the Motherland managed to escape from it, the partial break-up in 1991 of the Russian Empire (called the U.S.S.R.) ended all the demagogic arguments in the international arena overnight. However, this collapse didn’t solve the major problem of Russia – the decolonization of the colonies that in their time weren’t able to receive the official status of “union republics.” I should note that the absence of this legal status – and the preservation of the colonial regime – doesn’t make any more legal sense than it makes sense to think that colonies are only to be found across the ocean. The US Congress approved Public Law 86-90 “Captive Nations Week” on July 17, 1959, which pointed out that among the captured nations of Russia were the people of Idel-Ural who are mostly Tatars and Bashkirs. The awakening of the Tatar national identity after the collapse of the totalitarian regime pushed the Tatars to struggle for basic freedom, which mainly came down to the right to decide independently how they should live in their own republic.

Some leaders from the All-Tatar Public Center supported full independence for Tatarstan, up to its full separation from Russia. However, the geopolitical situation of Tatarstan, which is surrounded by regions mostly inhabited by Russians, didn’t leave room for any illusions. At the same time, the status of independence could become the basis for building new relations with Russia, to try along with other newly liberated nations of the former empire, to find a fundamental solution to the problem of economic and political integrity of the country, based on a federation or confederation built from the bottom-up.

In my opinion the referendum about independence was largely symbolic, but it was an extremely important step towards real independence. I know for a fact that no one in Tatarstan thought about organizing any military groups to try to solve the problem by force. However, such a ruckus broke out in the press on this account! All the newspapers, both democratic and pro-Communist, were stirring up supercharged anti-Tatar hysteria. I couldn’t get rid of the impression that all these actions were well coordinated, especially considering who controlled the so-called free press in Russia. My friends, who were quite well educated and democratically minded people, were surprised at the “impertinence” and “black ingratitude” of the Tatars.

It took a lot of effort to explain the simple truth to these people. Nevertheless, the referendum took place, and its results caused jubilation among the Tatar people. But, everything ended at that.

Although, later the governments of Tatarstan and Russia conducted negotiations on concluding some kind of agreement, it couldn’t change anything, except one thing. Before that Tatarstan was the only single colony conquered by the Russians which didn’t have a formal agreement confirming that it had voluntarily joined the Russian Empire. Probably even the Tsarist high officials found it extremely hypocritical to pretend that Tatarstan voluntarily joined the empire like the other colonies. The collective psychic wound inflicted on the Tatars by the massive slaughter of mostly innocent women and children after the siege of Kazan in 1552, was carried out by Russian troops led by Ivan the Terrible, and it remains unhealed to this day.

After negotiations in Moscow between the administrations of the presidents of the Russian Federation and Tatarstan, a non-binding agreement was signed about mutual relations that served as a pressure valve, that is, for comforting the Tatar people and for keeping the colonial status of Tatarstan.

In March of 1993, at the invitation of the All-Tatar Public Center, I participated in the congress of this organization. To do so I had to write an appeal to my investigator asking for permission to go to Kazan, because I was still under a written court order not to leave Moscow. Shkarin was happy about this turn of events, because after I had refused to take part in the investigation, I had completely ignored him and refused to sign any papers.

Unfortunately, I soon found out that many people in Kazan were still strongly under the influence of their Communist leaders, who had only one enemy – President Boris Yeltsin, who they felt had to be defeated at any cost. Early in 1991, it was Yeltsin who had offered the Tatars as much independence “as they could swallow”. I am certain that as a natural politician, Boris Yeltsin knew that the Russian Empire was an unstable form of governing colonies, and that it had become obsolete, both economically and politically. So a new federal system was necessary that would take into consideration the colonized peoples’ hunger for independence. It’s not surprising that after such a suggestion, President Mintimer Shaimiev [156] Geoffrey York, “Islam in Tatarstan”, Globe and Mail (Canada), May 5, 1998. , [157] Celestine Bohlen, “Regions Wary as Putin Tightens Control”, New York Times , March 9, 2000. , [158] Midkhat Farukshin, The Face and Mask , Kazan, 2005. of Tatarstan, viceroy of the Russian Empire, and the former First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the C.P.S.U., zealously participated in the Bolshevik coup in August of 1991. The Tatar people, led by their usual short-sighted and naive activists-idealists, saved the unlucky coup supporter from becoming a cellmate of Vladimir Kryuchkov (chief of the KGB), the U.S.S.R. Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, and others in the infamous Matrosskaya Tishina Prison.

What elements of freedom offered by Boris Yeltsin did the ruling elite in Kazan make use of? Perhaps it was only the “market” possibility – to use the wealth and resources of the Republic of Tatarstan without any control and to secure permanent places at the top for themselves, trampling on what remained of the system of democratic elections. As for the rest, they didn’t even bother to change the names of the streets and the cities which still bear the names of the Bolshevik butchers. Lenin’s beloved bronze scarecrow is still displayed in the center of Kazan. It was Mr. Shaimiev, President of Tatarstan, who instructed the people’s deputies from Tatarstan like Renat Mukhamadiev to form a bloc in the Supreme Soviet of Russia with extremists like Vladimir Rutskoi, Ruslan Khasbulatov, and Sergei Baburin, inveterate enemies of the democratic development in Russia. In my speech I reminded my audience about this fact, and my appeal to the congress was welcomed with long applause.

After that, I had to calm down a nervous BBC correspondent for a long time, who was asking if I wasn’t afraid that Tatar nationalists and separatists would use my authority for bad purposes. I replied that I know my people very well. Tatars distinguish themselves as hard working people. No matter where they settle, they start by building a house and a banya (bath house), but they never buy weapons, even if someone threatens their lives. However, this doesn’t mean that Tatars are cowardly. Tatars are among the first of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., who hold the greatest number of the highest award for heroism in the Second World War – the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union”. I also said I was certain that after the Tatar people became truly independent, they would live in real friendship with the Russian people.

Less than two years later, a new Russian-Chechen war broke out.