The second chapter from the book Belgorod-Belgrade, which combines decolonial autotheory and the study of Russian art, one way or another working with the theme of indigenous identity. This was not my first time crossing the border. I already did this when I went to Kyiv six months before. Then I saw sleepy men in uniforms shuffling around the reserved seat carriage with heavy folders, which, apparently, contained lists of debtors or people under criminal investigation.

In the lexicon of literary terms, metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to not by its own name, but by the name of something closely associated with it. When we say "Hollywood" to signify the American film industry, or "The Crown" to refer to the British monarchy, we are using metonymy. It is a shorthand, a linguistic container that holds a complex web of meanings, histories, and associations. In the 2020s, a similar phenomenon has occurred in popular culture.