What is the difference between a "Russian" and a "Russia's" explains the commander of the "Russian Volunteer Corps" Denis Nikitin in the online.ua documentary "White Moth is Done!".
Why "Russia's people" was insulting for RVC
To the journalist's question, why the "Russian" volunteer corps, and not the "Russian" one, Nikitin replied that he had long understood the importance of calling things by their proper names.
Because when we start hiding the meaning behind some new terms or tricky names, the essence is lost. The fact is that Russian is an ethnicity.
Let's say that we all know very well that there are Chechen units, there are Georgian units. They usually exist on the basis of ethnicity. The same applies to the RVС. We understand that first of all in this war, which is existential not only for Ukrainians but also for Russians, we should be concerned about the fate of our people. For us, "Russia's people" was an insulting word. "Russia's people" means philistines, it means consumers of propaganda, it means multinationals. It means a person of any nationality who lives in Russia.
Nikitin explains that in Russia, the word "Russia's" was introduced as a designation of a civil nation, that is, as a designation of all residents of Russia who live there, Chechens, Russians, Kazakhs, Yakuts, anyone.
The ideology of Russian nationalism comes in different forms. There is the imperial one, which says that everyone should live together. And there is the opposite point of view, that different peoples should live in different countries, and that different countries will have different customs. For example, Chechnya has its own customs. Why can't we respect them? We must have different customs abroad.
The commander of the RVC hopes that Russian people will one day have normal freedom-loving customs, they will decide for themselves how to live their lives, and not grovel before the authorities or anyone else. And not participate in the things they are doing today.
