basilknell - Tumblr blog

basilknell · 10 days

Text

Howdy! I tend to ramble about history books I read adjacent to Vasily on my private accounts, so I figured I’d accumulate some of the information I read regarding headcanoning Vasily’s ethnic background. This’ll be a big ‘ole post, so I’ll stash it under a read-more for anyone interested.

This isn’t meant to be taken as a concrete ‘Vasily is canonically ethnically x’ post, and as you’ll read none of the options I cover are necessarily concrete as there’s overlap and conjecture to be found in every choice. Nonetheless, this post's biggest purpose is reference for myself, as I rotate what I headcanon him to be often; I’m hoping some others might take an interest in alternate backgrounds for him from this, as I only ever see him portrayed as ethnically Russian.

I’d be happy to provide further reading/direction for certain information covered if wanted, and a special thank you to Rdstrpv for some of the information unavailable in english for me to find! I will also occasionally update this post over time as I read more documents and come across more evidence/contradictions.

I do my best to explain terms, but bear with me if it seems like I’m on a tangent about a seemingly unrelated topic to Vasily’s background. I promise it leads back around.

Russian

To address first and foremost, comes the ethnic background the vast majority of fans (and likely Noda as well) ascribe to Vasily – an ethnic Russian. There’s not much information I need to corroborate regarding why exactly one might find Vasily to be ethnically Russian, and it is the easiest background for him to tread if you wish to play it safe regarding headcanons if you don’t know much about Russian history.

Vasily, given his first name and appearance, has no contradictory elements to him being Russian. He speaks Russian in the show (though non-Russian ethnicities do sometimes speak Russian), he has an appearance typical of an ethnic Russian, and is found to be in an Russian Imperial Army (RIA) uniform – though I’d like to add there was mandatory conscription for most all males in Russia starting in 1874. The one time we see Vasily without his shinel (greatcoat), he’s wearing a kosovorotka, a shirt that specifically was worn by ethnic Russians, and typically no other ethnic groups.

(Pictured Vasily’s kosovorotka.)

An argument could be made that another ethnicity would’ve worn a kosovorotka given it being one of the likely few clothing options when stationed further East, but the more likely assumption is he is simply Russian. After all, Vasily’s birthplace, Yeleninka, was, and still is, in Russia; he never bothers to correct other characters that call him Russian either. Though, this could also be in part that he either could no longer speak at all after being shot, or he didn’t find worth in arguing about it.

But, regarding Vasily’s clothing, there are some major inconsistencies beginning with the fact Noda clearly had little idea about the Russian uniform or military organization in 1907.

To begin with: an ethnic Russian being a border guard was unusual. Not impossible, by any means, but not exactly the norm. Border guards at the time were found to be one of two categories: Cossacks (I will be discussing them later) or a specialized military unit called the Special Border Guard Corps (SBGC). While Cossacks were typical to find as border guards, and oftentimes had their own separate units from ordinary military units, you often could find ethnic Russians in the SBGC, though border protection more often than not belonged to Cossacks. You might also find the occasional ethnic Russians serving as a Cossack out East, but again, this will be further discussed below as to what that meant.

Neither Cossacks nor the SBGC wore the uniform Vasily and the other members of his unit are found in.

(Pictured 1909 uniforms of the SBGC.)

While this is a graphic of 1909 SBGC uniforms, they remained largely similar to the years before, and are notable for their green coloration to mark their identification. It’s far harder to pinpoint Vasily’s outfit had he been a Cossack, namely because he could have been in several different uniforms depending on which voisko (AKA a Host – think of these as state/territory distinctions between Cossacks residences) he originated from. To be a Cossack on the Sakhalin border, he could’ve been from a number of different voisko that created the East Siberian District that covered Sakhalin. Simply though, no Cossack uniform matched the uniform Vasily canonically wears either.

So what uniform is Vasily found to be wearing, then? His outfit is a generic foot soldier uniform of low-ranking members of the RIA, lacking any tags to denote which unit Vasily prevails from entirely. Even his cockade denotes his low-rank, nothing else. However, the uniform Vasily is found in was introduced in the year 1907 by order of complete uniform overhaul by Tsar Nicholas II. Given Vasily being in the Far East, it would be rather unusual for Vasily to wear a newly-issued uniform such as the one he’s found in. How would a soldier presumably on a remote border have such a newly printed uniform, structured for a separate occupation he does not have? He is a border guard sniper when he first appears after all, not a foot soldier.

All of this culminates into a couple of pieces of important information regarding Noda. (1) He was entirely unaware that the regular military did not cover borders, and instead it was the job of specialized units, Cossacks, and less commonly the SBGC. (2) He intentionally avoided pertinent information on Vasily’s uniform and gave him a generic one from the very year Russian uniforms were changed lasting until the Revolution. In fact, Noda had made edits to Vasily’s uniform between the original release of his appearance, and the volume releases, meaning he wasn’t thorough in depicting the Russian soldiers. (3) To culminate most of this, Noda had simply cobbled together information that created Vasily to be versatile for several different headcanons, not just as an ethnic Russian. If Noda had failed so spectacularly regarding Vasily’s uniform, could he also not have made a mistake in Vasily’s kosovorotka? After all, gimnasterka (a form of the kosovorotka worn by soldiers of any background in the RIA) were typically worn under shinel, and while Vasily’s shirt looks more like a kosovorotka than a gimnasterka, Noda simply could’ve drawn the gimnasterka wrong and accidentally created a kosovorotka.

There is a reason why most fans label Vasily as ethnically Russian, aside from general lack of knowledge on the subject, but in that same vein much of the evidence that he is ethnically Russian can be refuted in the same breath. Regardless, it's a simple headcanon to choose above the others if one wished.

Ukrainian

While Vasily’s silence and clothes tell one story about his background, his name itself tells another. Specifically, his surname! ‘Vasily’ is found in a number of different cultures, but his last name, Pavlichenko, is distinctly Ukrainian and not Russian. His father’s family, at the very least, had to have been of Ukrainian origin, regardless of his birthplace in Yeleninka (which is not located very close to Ruthenia, an old term for Ukrainian areas before the Ukrainian state emerged). It would be up to interpretation if his mother was also Ukrainian, but it does not conflict history to state his family could have moved from Ruthenia (perhaps after serfdom was abolished in 1861) to different areas in search of land. Being leased onto Cossack land to farm in the Orenburg voisko, where Yeleninka was located, was common for laborers and poorer non-Cossack locals. An ethnic Ukrainian being found in Yeleninka is not as outlandish as one might think and is entirely plausible, as a portion of Yeleninka was indeed ethnically Ukrainian (whether this was through forced displacement or general immigration, I am unsure). And, as discussed in the previous section, when assuming how an ethnic Russian was a border guard, the same logic can apply to a Ukrainian simply being in the SBGC.

It’s difficult to explain away Vasily’s last name without him being, in part, Ukrainian. But again, part of this information likely comes from Noda’s lack of research into Russian history. Vasily’s last name is taken from a famous sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, just as Vasily’s first name and birthplace are taken from another sniper, Vasily Zaitsev. Despite being ethnically Ukrainian, Lyudmila is often regarded as just a ‘Soviet’ sniper, and thus it's likely Noda assumed she was simply Russian and gave her name to Vasily because of that, unaware that there was a difference between Ukrainian and Russian last names.

If you’re a stickler to the specifics despite Noda’s intention, Vasily’s Ukrainian surname cannot be argued against as easily as many of the ethnic Russian factors for him. Whether that means you’d find Vasily to be exclusively Ukrainian, or a mix, that is up to one’s own headcanon interpretation.

Orenburg Cossack

Cossacks are a very long and convoluted subject in Russian history, but I will do my best to explain this as clearly as I can without dredging into too much history. First, and most important to remember, is ‘Cossack’ was not necessarily always an ethnic identity. But it was an ethnic identity to some.

The Cossacks emerged from various ethnic backgrounds. They culminated into one as different groups fled from whatever situation they found themselves in and drew into banditry together. Russians and Ukrainians fleeing serfdom, Poles fleeing the hetmans, those of Turk background, etc., all became a hodgepodge group called ‘Cossacks’ in Ruthenia and parts of Southwestern modern-day Russia. Over time, this group obtained special privileges from Imperial Russia in return for their extensive military service. Cossacks began to develop into an ethnic identity separate from Russians, Ukrainians, and Turks. Their own culture was Slavic mixed with Turkish culture – distinctly blended so they did not identify as one or the other.

However, because of these special privileges, a legal definition of a Cossack had to be applied to persons. Due to this, as Cossack voiskos began forming further East into Siberia where the Russian government wanted Cossacks stationed, they would often bestow the title of ‘Cossack’ to people living in certain areas who ethnically had no connection to Cossacks whatsoever. This created situations where those who did not want to be involved in the military were now legally obligated to give military service, and it was now possible to find even ethnically Chinese Cossacks in Eastern voiskos. A Cossack had become both an ethnic identity and a legal title to be bestowed, though the vast majority of Cossacks still remained those of the ethnic background.

To summarize, Cossacks found in Western Imperial Russia often regarded themselves as distinctly different ethnically from other groups (Russians, Ukrainians, Khalmyks), such as with Don, Kuban, and Ural Cossacks. This is often exemplified in Russian Literature (although written by those who are romanticizing the Cossacks) where it is highlighted that Cossacks consider themselves a separate ethnicity from those around them. However in the more Eastern voisko, while it was possible to find Cossacks who believed themselves ethnically Cossack, sometimes being a Cossack was simply a legal title and held no other cultural or ethnic significance.

Now, in regards to Vasily, border guards were often Cossacks in Imperial Russia, as it was one of their duties when not in an active military turn. This immediately gives him claim to potentially being a Cossack, if you choose to headcanon him as a Cossack rather than in the SBGC. Now, as stated above, he was far more likely to consider himself ethnically Cossack (which would explain a Ukrainian last name, but not consider himself Ukrainian due the blended nature of Cossacks) if he was from a voisko further West. But, Sakhalin was one of the Eastern-most points in Russia, and lacked a specific voisko to cover it. Instead, a group called the East Siberian District chose to cover Sakhalin, which was a collection of different voisko. If one was to headcanon Vasily as being a Cossack from any of these Eastern voisko, it’d be much easier to state several things at once: (1) Vasily is legally a Cossack and (2) Vasily considers himself to be ethnically Cossack, Ukrainian, Russian, or whatever else one might choose to headcanon him as. The only background you cannot headcanon such things in conjunction are legally Cossack and ethnically Jewish for a number of reasons.

But, let us backtrack, as there is further evidence to Cossack Vasily beyond his occupation as a border guard. In fact Yeleninka was located in the Orenburg voisko, and those who resided in Yeleninka were legally considered Cossacks. In fact, regardless of headcanon purposes, when following only factual history and no conjecture, Vasily should have been legally a Cossack if he had been born in Yeleninka itself (if born outside the town or if he moved there young, he could’ve been considered a non-Cossack living in the area. Certain ethnicities like Jews and Kalmyks were exempt from the legal title being applied however). I’ve never found specific statistics regarding Yeleninka’s official ethnic makeup, but as for the Orenburg voisko as a whole: when the Orenburg voisko was created, the government supplanted several ethnic Cossacks in the area, but also legally defined some ethnically Russian, Tatar, Mordvin, and Chuvash persons living in the area into Cossacks as well. Thus, one could easily consider Vasily ethnically Cossack, or instead consider him to be one of the other ethnicities listed above while only a Cossack in legal title.

To return back to the discussion about Sakhalin coverage, Yeleninka’s existence in the Orenburg voisko does, in fact, line up with history correctly, though I’m sure Noda was entirely unaware of this. Orenburg was a voisko part of the East Siberian District, and it is entirely plausible Vasily would have been stationed on the border because of that. Though it would have been more likely for a further East voisko to send soldiers to that specific border, but not impossible because Orenburg was part of the District.

Ussuri Cossack

Now, the Ussuri Cossack headcanon hinges upon everything I’ve just said above regarding Orenburg Cossacks. Whether or not Vasily is considered ethnically or legally Cossack matters little, only that he is simply titled an ‘Orenburg Cossack’ at the time of his birth, which he otherwise legally should’ve been if he was born in Yeleninka.

As mentioned, the Ussuri voisko was the voisko found furthest East – and because of that, the voisko most likely to have supplied Cossacks to watch the Sakhalin border as a general assumption because of their proximity. However, there is indeed precedent for an Orenburg Cossack becoming an Ussuri Cossack. While it was notoriously difficult for Cossacks (and peasants in general) to transfer between voisko, starting in the 1890s (after a large famine hit the Orenburg voisko the hardest) the government began supporting Orenburg Cossacks in moving to the Ussuri voisko.

So, in essence, Vasily could have been born in Yeleninka, legally considered a Cossack, and then moved to be raised in the Ussuri voisko as an Ussuri Cossack, allowing for a more probable likeness for him to have been stationed at the Sakhalin border. Because of how devastating the famine was to the Orenburg voisko, movement to the Ussuri voisko was a fairly popular choice for some Cossacks.

Mordvin & Chuvash

This section is to be updated in the future hopefully, but one could headcanon Vasily to be Mordvin or Chuvash if they wished for a reason spelled out above: Mordvin (more abundant) and Chuvash (less abundant) lived in the Orenburg voisko, and perhaps directly in Yeleninka. Unfortunately I have no other evidence beyond that at the moment, but it is not implausible because there is documentation of groups of these ethnicities living in the area. Please, if you have any papers or books on these two groups, I would love to read them!

End Note

I’ll end this on a note that, with all this information laid out, I only wish to encourage people to choose what they personally feel drawn to for Vasily’s background. While some headcanons have more evidence than others, each has their own difficulties with history in ways, as Noda accidentally contradicted much of the information he applied to Vasily. I hope this encourages more people to do research into the history here – which I think is especially needed if you intend to headcanon Vasily as a Cossack, even if you are headcanoning him to be a ethnically non-Cossack, but legally defined under the title. But a mix of ethnic background is entirely possible for Vasily according to just the factual history, so restricting him to one ethnic identity isn’t needed if one does not wish.

Personally, I often write and draw Vasily as being half Ukrainian half Russian, though in my actual preference I find him to be an ethnic Cossack that was raised in the Ussuri voisko. However, I feel when I present him as a Cossack I want nuance following it, so I’ve never bothered to draw or write him as such beyond a couple sketches.

#golden kamuy #vasily pavlichenko #not art #sorry for the long post ive been waiting to yap about this forever

51 notes · View notes