The letter from the Chuvash Writers’ Union to Stalin – a mockery in laudatory manner 

In the letter of the Chuvash Writers` Union to Stalin, two contradictory things can be observed: on the one hand, they praise the Muscovite occupiers (they say, without an occupier, the Chuvash is worthless – even the Chuvash is supposedly grateful to build St. Petersburg for free and in shackles), and on the other hand, they describe all the horrors of Moscow occupation and the eternal struggle of the Chuvash people against Moscow. While they clearly describe more hatred towards Moscow than favor towards it.

If we put aside the beginning and end of the appeal, then this is simply a recount of the crimes of the Muscovites against the Chuvash and the Chuvash uprisings, and the Chuvash Writers` Union added on their part laudatory odes to Stalin and wrote that “the Chuvash would like to be born Russian,” but “it is not possibe” and they have to exist as the “inferior nation”, wishing to “get closer to” Russian “glory”, because “only Russians can save the Chuvash.”

Georgians are mentioned only twice, and then briefly. Russians are mentioned more than 50 times. But Stalin was a mankurt from Georgia. That is, in the USSR, in order to  tell at least somehow about their history, it was necessary to praise the Russians in everything and everywhere. Including the Russian Stalin. Not Soviet people, but exactly Russians. Because Stalin, who grew up (in fact as a Janissary) under the influence of the imperial chauvinistic ideas, he did not like to be called a Georgian – he chose to be Russian. Such is the psychotrauma that gave birth to the next monstrous king of Muscovy.

Many centuries ago, travelers from different countries wrote about the Muscovites’ excessive love for unjustified and exaggerated praise. For example, the Dutchman Nicholas Witsen in his Travel to Muscovy (1664-1665) said that even if one openly mock the Muscovites, but do it in a laudatory manner, they do not understand and rejoice, although among his own people even children would understand the mockery. This is what the Chuvash Writers` Union took advantage of by writing this letter. It was instantly picked up by the entire Soviet press.

So, on the one hand, it is pro-imperial propaganda, and if you look closely, it is an attempt to disseminate Chuvash history to the widest possible masses of people under conditions of occupation and the actual lack of rights to be a real Chuvash.