Recent Russian History, A Timeline
The Siberian fur trade, although not as prominent as the oil and gas industry today, saw the exploitation of Indigenous populations and land to build state wealth as sable fur, among others, were exported to major cities in Europe to sustain the wardrobes of nobility. However, Russia's fur trade changed the way in which indigenous populations treated and hunted their fur, as large quantities needed to be fulfilled to accommodate this fast-growing industry at the time.
Although individuals online are not wearing serval fur, one may conclude that the other furs they are wearing are sable, or other mammals that have been exploited for their fur. As mentioned before, although fur is not a driving commodity in Russia's economy, it's soft gold properties has changed the way in which long-standing practises use the labour force of Russia's 'Others'.
There have been two resource-bound periods of Russian history, the era of fur and the era of gas. Historically discontinuous, these two periods feature uncanny similarities – structural and geographic, essential and accidental. Processing these commodities is unusually messy. The state’s dependency on trade in them makes the population superfluous. Extracting, storing, and delivering these resources makes security more important than liberty. Reliance on these resources destroys the environment, natural and cultural. And oil is also counted in barrels (Etkind, 2011).
Speak on personal experience of the availability of high-quality fur - and lower price compared to NA
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1879366511000145?token=F91252EAC80A67B7FF6D02FB3324EE8E34EAB0B3235B10FCF142F5D233D893677C60F7DF0B262E3EC5978FEDFE3B9E2B&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20230402155944
The fur trade is still prominent in Russia today, as indigenous communities under the Russian Empire were forced to change their treatment of fur (and the animal itself) to accommodate to capitalist modes of production surrounding the buying and selling of fur. Although the individuals online are not wearing serval fur, one may conclude that the other furs they are wearing are sable, or other mammals that have been exploited for their fur. The purpose of tracking the history of the fur trade in Russia, as well as its recent history starting with the annexation of Crimea in 2014 is to highlight how its 'Others' are used along with their long-standing practises, and how animals, over time, have been given special treatment compared to others (and to highlight how fur is a commodity, 'soft gold' as it is referred to).
Unification and a single Russian state - bring in Invasion of Ukraine
Should not take a war to recognize ethnic groups but also lots of activism centred around revitalization of Indigenous thought and celebration of culture - need to go more in this direction - social media - big cat? Not sure how to tie in - recognition of native animals to region (understanding that the serval is not native to Russia)
Indigenous methodologies - not looking back to fix it but also not relying on appropriation to try and fix the future.