Russian Nationalism From An Interdisciplinary Perspective

This study examines how Russians imagine Russia in the 21st century and for the last three centuries. It looks at Russian history and modern day conflicts, such as ethnicity, to see how Russian people identify themselves. This study sheds light on many topics in Russian history, such as nationalism, anti-Semitism, Orthodox Christianity and ethnic others and reaction to NATO actions in Kosovo.

This book, by one of the foremost authorities on the subject, explores the complex nature of Russian nationalism. It examines nationalism as a multilayered and multifaceted repertoire displayed by a myriad of actors. It considers nationalism as various concepts and ideas emphasizing Russia’s distinctive national character, based on the country’s geography, history, Orthodoxy, and Soviet technological advances. It analyzes the ideologies of Russia’s ultra-nationalist and far-right groups, explores the use of nationalism in the conflict with Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, and discusses how Putin’s political opponents, including Alexei Navalny, make use of nationalism. Overall the book provides a rich analysis of a key force which is profoundly affecting political and societal developments both inside Russia and beyond.

This volume brings together 15 articles divided into four sections on the role of nationalism in transitions to democracy, the application of theory to country case studies, and the role played by history and myths in the forging of national identities and nationalisms. The book develops new theories and frameworks through engaging with leading scholars of nationalism: Hans Kohn's propositions are discussed in relation to the applicability of the term 'civic' (with no ethno-cultural connotations) to liberal democracies, Rogers Brubaker over the usefulness of dividing European states into 'civic' and 'nationalizing' states when the former have historically been 'nationalizers', Will Kymlicka on the applicability of multiculturalism to post-communist states, and Paul Robert Magocsi on the lack of data to support claims of revivals by national minorities in Ukraine. The book also engages with 'transitology' over the usefulness of comparative studies of transitions in regions that underwent only political reforms, and those that had 'quadruple transitions', implying simultaneous democratic and market reforms, as well as state and nation building. A comparative study of Serbian and Russian diasporas focuses on why ethnic Serbs and Russians living outside Serbia and Russia reacted differently to the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the USSR. The book dissects the writing of Russian and Soviet history that continues to utilize imperial frameworks of history, analyzes the re-writing of Ukrainian history within post-colonial theories, and discusses the forging of Ukraine's identity within theories of 'Others' as central to the shaping of identities. The collection of articles proposes a new framework for the study of Ukrainian nationalism as a broader research phenomenon by placing nationalism in Ukraine within a theoretical and comparative perspective.

Nationalism, National Identity and Movements begins by presenting an examination of how forced migratory movements, although seeming to question traditional national principles of the sovereign state as well as undermining or even eroding nationalist value systems, ended up strengthening the power of the nation-states during the period after the Second World War. In particular, it will investigate how different waves of refugees contributed to the consolidation of one specific type of nationalism: the ethnic one.Next, the authors analyse the role of national narratives in the development of national identity. This interdisciplinary approach offers a more complete and analytical understanding of how narratives of national identity are produced, transmitted and finally consumed by the members of a nation.Also in this book, detailed theoretical rationale for the relationships between identification and threat perceptions is presented, exploring the issues related to causal direction and links to attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policies. Although having a national identity on its own is not troubling, possessing an inflated sense of national identity, referred to as national group narcissism, may lead to biased perceptions of intergroup relations.Following this, the authors describe three different types of artworks and the identities associated with each artist in order to reveal the complex process through which Korean identity is formed. This research identifies the first type of artist as one who left South Korea as an adult in order to be deterritorialized from the given territory, and the individual's Koreanness has been one rediscovered by dialectical play with the Other.Usage of the colonial discourse is proposed as a way to represent social relationships, providing additional opportunities for the analysis of the political situation in Russia. Thus, the work of contemporary intellectuals who identify themselves as "Russian nationalists" is analyzed. Conclusions are made regarding the fundamental conflictual nature of intellectuals.The construction of a unified Mexican national identity is depicted in the concluding chapter, in a territory originally divided by adversarial ethnic groups into one nation glued by a common language and history. The authors conclude that nationalism in Mexico must be understood within educational, historical and contextual influences to assess costs and benefits.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject History - Asia, grade: B+ (2), The American Central University (Department of History), course: Colloquium in 19. Century European History, language: English, abstract: The first movement associated with Russian Nationalism was that of the Slavophiles. The Slavophiles were different from their French contemporaries, who saw their identity in relation to the French state. For the Slavophiles, culture, consisting of the Russian language and literature, and the belief in Orthodox Christendom and not so much the state brought about national unity. Vastly influenced by their German neighbors to the West, in the time of Romanticism, Slavophiles tried to cultivate and enhance the idea of a Slavic people and a national community through their writings, and by accentuating the common belief in Orthodox morality and the purity of the rural folk against the decadent West. The Slavophiles had their basis mainly among the intellectuals, what was perceived as Russia's cultural elite. During the first half of the 19th century, Russia, as the only independent Slav state, with its vast population and its political might, was seen as the heartland of Slavic people. It was after Russia's defeat in the Crimean War of 1853-56, when Slavophilism emerged into a political ideology and entered the sphere of politics. Now, intellectuals wanted to put Slavophile ideas on the political agenda, which ought to liberate the smaller Slavic communities from Ottoman, Austrian, and Prussian yoke and bring them under the protection of their bigger brothers, the Russians. Despite its attractiveness and support among Russia's intellectual elite, and other Slavic intellectuals, the Russian Tsar and officials hesitated with the political ideas of Panslavism. Not all of Russia was populated with Slavic people, but there were also Jews, Baltics and Germans. Further, not all Slavs identified themselves as Orthodox and wanted to be ruled by Russia, for example

This thoughtful book describes the range of nationalist ideas that have taken root in Russia since 1856. Drawing on a wide range of archival documents and unparalleled interview material from the post-Soviet period, Tuminez analyzes two cases_Russian panslavism in 1856-1878 and great power nationalism in 1905-1914_when aggressive nationalist ideas clearly influenced Russian foreign policy and contributed to decisions to go to war. Yet not all forms of nationalism have been malevolent, and the author assesses competing nationalist ideologies in the post-Soviet period to clarify the conditions under which a particularly belligerent nationalism could flourish and influence Russian international behavior.

Many politicians and journalists in the West seem to believe that most Russians have always at heart been nationalists in the search of demagogues to lead them. But are they? For most of their history, until recently, Russians have had an identity based less upon nationhood than upon a peasant culture and a rural version of Orthodox Christianity. Even their rulers have seldom been all-out nationalists. The tsars never forgot that they governed not a nation but a vast land-mass empire; and just as they aimed to foster loyalty to the imperial regime, so communist leaders -- including even Stalin, who was the most Russifying of them -- wished to engender an allegiance to the USSR and Marxism-Leninism. The result is that Russians, as they emerge from communist rule, are engaged in a process of self-discovery. They argue about what forms of politics and economy that will be best for them. But more than that, they ask the question: what is Russia?

The Soviet polity is presently going through its most difficult transition ever. The Russian Center's point of view is that the crisis is an issue of imperialism: the decline and fall of the old Russian empire, the undoing of the pax Russica, the derangement of the Russian imperial consciousness. From the viewpoint of the former march-lands of the empire, the issue is nationalism. Since Mikhail Gorbachev launched his reform program under the rubric of perestroika and glasnost, the most dramatic changes taking place in the USSR have been in the area of ethnic and minority nationalism. The Soviet nationalities problem has become central to the nations of the world, as well as to all minority and national groups. The purpose of this book is to present a comprehensive analysis of the impact of nationalism on the break-up of the Soviet Union, measure the effects of this dissolution, and examine the remnants and revisions. The authors conclude that the Russian Empire is at the end of its tether, but what will remain will still be a viable world power. The second conclusion is that the so-called center of the empire will be in Russia herself, much more than in the past, and that a new form of Russian nationalism is in the making, which could have aggressive and expansionist tendencies. Policymakers, Soviet-area specialists, and students will find this book provocative and useful.

In contrast to the substantial output of Western works on the revival of nationalism among the non-Russians in the USSR, the critical phenomenon of Russian nationalism has been little studied in the West. Here John B. Dunlop measures the strength and political viability of a movement that has been steadily growing since the mid-1960s and that may well eventually become the ruling ideology of the state. Professor Dunlop's comprehensive discussion depicts for the Western reader the gamut of Russian nationalism from Solzhenitsyn to the vehement National Bolsheviks. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.