Tina Fey’s giggle-inducing portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live earlier last month, provides a humorous take on Palin’s supposed experience with Russia.
Russia is close, that’s for sure, but being within a reasonable proximity of one’s neighbor does not make you an expert. If you have an Indian family that lives down the road from you, does your range make you an expert on great Indian food and the Hindi religion? Hardly. To make such an insulting comparison, is insulting to those who have had real understanding with Russia and the Russian people.
Russia and Alaska are technically divided by no less than 3 miles. In the middle of the Bering Strait reside two tiny islands; Big Diomede and Little Diomede. Alaska owns the latter. After WWII, those who resided on Big Diomede were relocated by the Russian government1. Even though the two islands had enjoyed use between both Alaskan and Russian Natives, families were broken up and access to the “summer island” was forbidden for the remaining Alaskans. There are not any natives living on Big Diomede.
Please click for larger image
Satellite image provided by Google Maps
The population of Little Diomede is less than 130. Some sites give statistics of around 146, but this is outdated information – there are more Natives leaving the little island in favor of mainland Alaska.
Mail is delivered once a week by helicopter. If the conditions are bad, the helicopter will not even attempt a landing, and the deliverer will simply heave the bag of mail out from the air. It is very risky and very expensive to take cargo ships out there. The area is rocky, windy and many ships have been damaged trying to deliver goods out there.
During the winter, when the ocean freezes over, Natives employ snowmachines to traverse the ice in order to hunt for polar bears. Russia has an eagle eye over the international date line; the instant an Alaskan Native accidentally crosses over and into Russian territory, someone is called over in the States to alert the border-crosser of his unintentional crossing.
Now that’s quite a bit of paranoia to see, coming from the Russians. It appears they are far more concerned with us going over there, than we are of them coming here! Perhaps they are being vigilant about border crossing, but really, in that remote of an area, polar bears are probably the most dangerous!
It’s also important to realize that while Eastern Russia/Siberia is a huge part of the country, its population is only 30% of the total. The region is also enormous – it claims over 70% of Russia’s total land claim. The average population density is around 3 people per square kilometer2.
The closest district to Alaska is the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, where about 54,000 people live. There is approximately 0.1 persons per square mile. You don’t live a normal life out in these places. This is hardly a location where its inhabitants are of the militaristic breed, waiting to launch a sea or air attack on Alaska. People here live just like their counterparts in Alaska – braving the severe winter temperatures, living off the land and subsisting largely off of the animals here, and prolonging a far-reaching Native lifestyle. For those who aren’t involved in the villages, or are non-Natives (a little more than 50% of the population), you would be there because of good wages. Because, let’s admit. Not a lot of people would want to voluntarily want to live out there, or elsewhere in the unforgiving lands of Siberia.
For what it’s worth, Palin has never been to Little Diomede. She has never gone to the far reaches of the Alaskan borders, and see what these people are like, and to truly appreciate how close Russia is, even if it appears as a flat-topped, rocky little island. The only elected official who has ever been there was Ted Stevens, who he himself even said, “I did not realize you were this remote.”3 Only to go there, can one truly understand how incredibly far, remote and unpopulated Diomede and everything in the region is.
And by the way? Bordering Canada does not make one an international relations expert. Few differences remain between Alaskans and the sparsely-populated Yukon Territory, except Canadians are lucky in that they have ketchup-flavored potato chips.
1. http://www.dced.state.ak.us/oed/student_info/learn/russianheritage.htm
2. http://www.sbras.ru/sicc/siberia_.htm
3. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ak/state/diomede.html
