The Russian Federation, as it is officially known, consists of many republics, oblasts and krais which often have their own unique people groups, languages, cultures and administrative structure. In the 1400’s, as the eastern Slavs began to push the Mongolian “Golden Horde” back to Mongolia, they found a land with immense wealth and resources. They exploited the land and the people by demanding great amounts of tribute. When the people resisted, they were often killed and those remaining were threatened into submission, but this approach bred ill-will among the eastern tribes.
Russia learned a thing or two from Genghis Kahn: the use of terror in ruling is highly effective. Operating under false flag operations, they terrorized the local populations and then came in as the ones that could provide “protection” from these “marauders.” Of course, that protection came at a great cost… both monetary and in terms of freedom. Imperial Russia and the USSR have, in effect, colonized a great many people groups, thus expanding to what it is today, a country with the geographical footprint of 1/7th of the world’s land mass.
Let us consider which people group within the boundaries of the Russia is suffering the most in the war against Ukraine. To keep you from wasting your time guessing, the answer is Tyva (Tuva). The people group who are fighting and dying more than in any other section of Russia is the 336,000 Tuvan people who populate a small section of land on the southern tip of Siberia. Tuvans are a very poor, but proud people. They consider it an honor to serve in the military and for many, the military is a way out of poverty. So when the war began, many were enlisted and told they were going to Rostov and would receive training before going to fight in Ukraine. Yet we hear over and over about how these men arrived in Rostov, were given no training and very little outfitting, and subsequently sent to Ukraine to die on the killing fields.
I heard rumors of this when I was in Ukraine just six months after the full-scale invasion of February, 2022. One politician from the eastern republics was complaining about how many of his people were dying in the war and how few Moscovites were perishing, “How is THIS not ethnic cleansing?” He has a right to complain, but it is doubtful that Putler is actually trying to exterminate the Tuvans or the Buryats like he is the Ukrainians. His intentions are no less nefarious though and absolutely based in convenience, strategy, and racism. The more ethnic Asians the Russian armed forces are able to conscript, the less ethnic Russians will die. The less ethnic Russian who die – the less Moscovites die. When less Moscovites die, Putler’s hold on power is tenable.
According to an article published by BBC Russian Service on November 24, 2023, the provable casualties of war from Tuva is much greater than any other part of Russia (based on research by Media Zone – MZ). Here is how it stacks up:
| Entity | Population | MZ’s War Death Count | War Deaths Per 10,000 Men | War Deaths Per Capita |
| Tyva Republic | 336,651 | 451 | 48.6 | 1 per 746 |
| Republic of Buryatia | 978,588 | 1,028 | 36.7 | 1 per 952 |
| Zabaykalsky Krai | 1,004,125 | 781 | 26.2 | 1 per 1,286 |
| Leningrad Oblast | 2,000,997 | 382 | 6 | 1 per 5,238 |
| Krasnodar Krai | 5,838,273 | 1,413 | 8 | 1 per 4,132 |
| Moscow Oblast | 8,524,665 | 1,006 | 3.6 | 1 per 8,474 |
There are many cultural, social, and economical reasons why the Tuvans or the Buryats would subject themselves to this form of imperialism and racism. The Latvian independent news group, Meduza, has written an interesting article that explains the phenomena and gives key insight into the Tuvan culture (Click here). Though it is over a year old, it is still extremely relevant.
There are many families in Tuva that have been affected by this war. When one adds up the casualties plus the MIAs, plus the wounded and maimed, the disillusioned and morally injured… all Tuvans know people who are war-damaged.
In Moscow (the political capital) and St. Petersburg (the cultural capital), most people are largely unaffected by the war. It is a distant and remote reality that is detached from the average person’s everyday life. One is reminded of the film series, The Hunger Games, where in the capital district, citizens cluelessly lived lives of leisure and frivolity, while the poor and oppressed in other districts eked out an existence with little joy and much hardship subject to the whims of an evil and violent regime.
When the Tsars first began to subjugate the peoples of central and eastern Russia, they did so for their own enrichment. The people were simply resources to be used and disposed of for the Tsar’s personal enrichment. He became the most wealthy person on earth amassing a treasure chest equivalent to 300,000,000,000 (300 billion) dollars. Then came the Soviet Union and those on the periphery were again used as resources. Then came the discovery of oil which is the black gold that props up the Russia. The Krais and the Republics continued to serve and enrich the Muscovy ruling party, and today the Resources are the cannon fodder that has been dying in disproportionate numbers on the steppe of eastern Ukraine‘s fertile black soil.
So when will this war end? Perhaps it will end when Russia has exhausted their Resources and the sons of Moscow begin to die en masse like their comrades in the east.
Eric Yodis 