After empire : nationalist imagination and symbolic politics in Russia and Eurasia in the twentieth and twenty-first century / Igor Torbakov ; with a foreword by Serhii Plokhy.
| Author/creator | Torbakov, I. B. author. |
| Other author | Plokhy, Serhii, 1957- writer of preface. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Stuttgart : Ibidem-Verlag, [2018] |
| Copyright Date | ©2018 |
| Description | 347 pages ; 22 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Soviet and post-soviet politics and society (SPPS), 1614-3515 ; vol. 191 Soviet and post-Soviet politics and society ; 191. ^A1185730 |
| Contents | Foreword by Serhii Plokhy -- Introduction : Debating Russian Nationalism and Empire -- Acknowledgements -- The Vision of Eurasia -- Becoming Eurasian : the Intellectual Odyssey of Georgii Vladimirovich Vernadsky -- From the other Shore : reflections of Russian Émigré Thinkers on Soviet Nationality Policies, 1920s-1930s -- Defining the "True" Nationalism : Russian Ethnic Nationalists versus Eurasianists -- "Middle Continent" or "Island Russia" : Eurasianist Legacy and Vadim Tsymbursky's Revisionist Geopolitics -- Neo-Ottomanism versus Neo-Eurasianism? : Nationalism and Symbolic Geography in Postimperial Turkey and Russia -- Russia and Ukraine : Histoire Croisée -- "This is a Strife of Slavs Among Themselves" : Understanding Russian-Ukrainian Relations as a Conflict of Contested Identities -- Ukraine and Russia : Entangled Histories, Contested Identities, and a War of Narratives -- Symbolic Geographies of Empire : the Ukraine Factor in Russia-Europe Relations. |
| Summary | Igor Torbakov explores the nexus between various forms of Russian political imagination and the apparently cyclic process of decline and fall of Russia's imperial polity over the last hundred years. While Russia's historical process is by no means unique, two features of its historical development stand out. First, the country's history is characterized by dramatic political discontinuity. In the past century, Russia changed its "historical skin" three times: following the disintegration of the Tsarist Empire accompanied by violent civil war, it was reconstituted as the communist USSR, whose breakup a quarter century ago led to the emergence of the present-day Russian Federation. Each of the dramatic transformations in the 20th century powerfully affected the notion of what "Russia" is and what it means to be Russian. Second, alongside Russia's political instability, there is, paradoxically, a striking picture of geopolitical stability and of remarkable longevity as an imperial entity. At least since the beginning of the 18th century, "Russia" has been a permanent geopolitical fixture on Europe's north-eastern margins with its persistent pretense to the status of a great power. Against this backdrop, the book's three sections investigate (a) the emergence and development of Eurasianism as a form of (post- )imperial ideology, (b) the crucial role Ukraine has historically played for the Russians' self-understanding, and (c) the contemporary Russian elites' exercises in historical legitimation. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references. |
| Issued in other form | 9783838272177 |
| ISBN | 3838212177 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 9783838212173 (paperback) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | DK510.76 .T67 2018 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |