Embedded Ethnic Groups

For John, BLUF:  No more Belvidere Village breakout.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Ukraine crisis brought this item from the blog Samizdata.♠  The headline is "Latest on the referendum in the Ukraine:  Hughesovka votes to join the UK."  Here is the gist of it:

Donestk was founded in the 19th century by John Hughes, a Merthyr Tydfil♥ steel worker who had landed a contract from the Tsarist government to provide steel plating for the navy.

Now residents of the city have responded to pro-Russian protests for autonomy from Kiev with an internet vote that rejects Russia’s claims in favour of a turn to the Queen and London.

It calls for the restoration of the original name Hughesovka or Yuzovka and requests London rule.

After the Bolshevik revolution, the city was renamed Stalino and finally called Donetsk in 1961.

A total of 7,000 people had voted by Sunday with 61 per cent voting to secede to Britain and a further 16 per cent voting to make the city an English-speaking autonomous region inside Ukraine.

“We demand a referendum on the return to Yuzovka to its original bosom – a part of Great Britain,” the preamble declared.  “Glory to John Hughes and his town.  God Save the Queen.”

Sounds like a spoof, pointing up the strangeness of the Russian seizure of Crimea, and a putdown of the concept of encouraging ethnic or other minorities in maintaining their isolation from the population as a whole.  In fact, it is not.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  "Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]"
♥  Yes, part of my family is from Merthyr.  Maybe we need a referendum here in the Belvidere.  :-)