Exceptions to Authoritarianism? Variegated sovereignty and ethno-nationalism in a Siberian resource frontier

Abstract

This paper explores how the governance of culture and nationalism in Russia is far from uniform but rather, characterized by exceptions and diffuse sovereignty. It responds to a literature exploring the use of culture and identity in the Kremlin's governing practices through the idiom of "exceptions to authoritarianism." The dominant conception that culture is strictly instrumentalized by the Kremlin for regime legitimation and the maintenance of the so-called power vertikal is countered by anthropologically examining cultural institutions and identity politics in the Altai Republic. More specifically, the Gazprom-sponsored renovation of a museum celebrating Altaian indigenous culture is explored. This contribution highlights the agendas, interests, and players defining the culture-political fields of practice in authoritarianstates by analyzing how Gazprom enables the blossoming of indigenous cultural institutions. It repositions Gazprom, which successfully enabled a temporary exception to centrist policies, as a parastatal company, located between the global market and authoritarian state.

Promising pipelines and hydrocarbon nationalism: the sociality of unbuilt infrastructure in indigenous Siberia

“…Archaeologists ultimately agreed to repatriate the mummy after the investments of Gazprom in the museum. When contrasting the museum celebrating Altaian uniqueness with the widespread ‘folklorisation’ and depoliticisation (Prina 2016) of indigenous minorities and their culture in the Russian Federation, one can see a clear exception to the otherwise strict government of culture by the Kremlin (Plets 2019). Clearly, both Gazprom and the state are not unilaterally imposing sovereignty on the Altai people.…”