Talk:Russification

Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky's purpoted quote "что не доделал русский штык – доделает русская школа"
In the part about the Russification of Poland and Lithuania the above quote is mentioned as being attributed to Muravyov.

It can be translated as: what the Russian bayonet didn't complete - the Russian school will complete. (more or less. or "the Russian school will finish")

However, I've searched around on the internet and did not find a serious source mentioning a work/letter/etc where Muravyov said it. I found this article by Nasha Niva in which the author says they believe it is a quote from Ivan Petrovich Kornilov, a prominent Russian official in Lithuania in the 1860s. However the article also doesn't mention hard evidence, saying that his memoirs are in the "national library" – I presume the author means the Belarusian one?

I found this article from some humanity studies journal (it doesn't have a Wikipedia page) which attributes the following quote to Kornilov:

Русская пропаганда, действующая через школы, церкви, администрацию, делает своё дело; она возбуждает в массах ясное сознание и убеждение, что здешний край − исконно русский, что здесь колыбель русского государства и Православия… Русский язык и русская вера перестают называться холопскими; русского языка не стыдятся как прежде, а польским не щеголяют. Русское образование сильнее русского штыка.

Translation: ''Russian propaganda, acting through schools, churches, administration, is doing its job; it arouses in the masses a clear consciousness and conviction that this region is primordially Russian, that here is the cradle of the Russian state and Orthodoxy... The Russian language and Russian faith cease to be called servile; Russian language is not ashamed as before, and Polish is not flaunted. Russian education is stronger than the Russian bayonet.''

One can only notice the similarity. This quote has a notably less "offensive" tone. The stated source for the quote is '' Корнилов И.П. Русское дело в Северо-Западном крае: Материалы для истории Виленского учебного округа преимущественно в Муравьёвскую эпоху. 2-е изд. Вып. первый. СПб., 1908. ''

I'm also not 100% certain of its veracity – I didn't find a digital version of the quoted source.

It seems that this quote is mentioned in a fair amount of books and publications (in Russia and Belarus), at least according to my humble google searches. The first one seemed to be mostly in articles and personal blogs, and I found nothing that points to a hard source.

Note that both quotes are "exploitable" for controversial topics in the present day, one being used by Belarusian nationalists to underline cultural oppression, portraying Russian schools as mankurt factories, and the other used by pro-Russians. For instance, I found a book mocking "small-town nationalists" for using the first quote.

I didn't remove the quote from the section. I'm curious to hear feedback on what I wrote here. --Spafky (talk) 16:51, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

“Form of cultural assimilation” change to “Form of genocide”
Russification as a state policy fulfills at least 3/5 acts defined as genocide (one is sufficient to be labelled genocide). Namely, killing members of the group, causing serious physical and mental harm, and imposing living conditions intended to destroy.

”Cultural assimilation” does not adequately reflect the systematic cruelty of this state imposed process. 85.83.243.13 (talk) 08:00, 30 July 2023 (UTC)

Russification or Russiannization
Google ngram shows that the word Russification orders of magnitude more frequent. - Altenmann >talk 04:44, 3 July 2024 (UTC)