recently I was curious about one aspect of this, specifically about Black immigrants in Russia, to try and see what kind of moral high ground a white Russian could possibly have for them to dismiss imperial core racist violence. I was also inspired by a conversation I had with an African migrant friend who talked about their complicated feelings regarding the USSR; how despite the Soviets’ support for African countries battling colonialism, Russian communists never went as hard for Africa and Black liberation as they did for non-Black communist movements. anyway I found this 20 year old article — unfortunately from the BBC but still worth reading imo. as expected there is no high ground, because social constructs of race exist in Russia like they do anywhere else. even though the article is old this is still within these tumblr users’ lifetimes and the harm has likely gone unrepaired. despite any goodwill toward Africa from the USSR, as acknowledged by some interviewees in the article, I do not think any Russian nor anyone who defends that one person should get on their high horse about racism and xenophobia when these are some excerpts: