Researcher
Bendik Manum
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Bendik is a master's student at NUPI in the Research group for Russia, Asia, and International Trade, and is currently writing his Master’s thesis in Russian area studies. Bendik’s thesis explores the role of the Cossacks in Ukrainian and Russian national identity, by tracing Cossack myths in narratives from 19th century Ukrainian and Russian popular literature and poetry.
Bendik’s interests include the contemporary Cossack movement and questions about nationality policy, nationalism, history, and politics in the post-Soviet space.
He holds two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Oslo in history and Russian area studies, and has served as an intern at the Norwegian Embassy in Tallinn.
Expertise
Education
2021 BA in History, the University of Oslo.
2022 BA in Russian area studies, the University of Oslo.
Work experience
Spring 2023 Intern with the Norwegian Embassy in Tallinn.@
Autumn 2023 Teaching assistant, the Institute for Literature, area knowledge and languages (ILOS) at the University of Oslo.
Aktivitet
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Clear all filtersRussian-speakers in Estonia: A Minority Without Agency
This article explores the conditions of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia and sees the development of these conditions as a product of an interaction between the nationalizing state, the Russian-speaking minority, the minority’s “kin state”, and the international community; a framework dubbed the “quadratic nexus” by David J. Smith, expanding upon the theories of Rogers Brubaker. This article provides an updated empirical analysis of the impact of the quadratic dynamic in Estonian minority relations, as the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has shifted the balance of power between the agents in Smith’s nexus. The result of this shift is that the conditions of the Russian-speaking minority are now almost entirely decided by the nationalizing state, influenced by Russian aggression. The Russian Federation has made the protection of minority rights in Estonia increasingly difficult by pressuring the Estonian political elite to take an even more conservative stance on nationality policies as a response to the perceived threat from their neighbor in the east, in addition to reinforcing international indifference to minority rights in Estonia. This, combined with the preexisting socio-economic conditions of the Russian-speaking minority has led to the near total loss of the minority’s agency. The article is in Norwegian only.