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Russian, Imperial and Soviet Identities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Dominic Lieven
Dominic Lieven
Affiliation:
The Institute of Historical Research, London
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Extract

In a much-cited statement Ernest Renan once commented that the nation was a daily plebiscite. Whereas the state's essence are institutions and laws, the nation exists first and foremost in the consciousness of the population. How strongly a population identifies itself as a nation differs over time and from one section or class to another. The nature of the external challenges facing a community will also help to determine its sense of identity. Though different groups and individuals may all claim membership of the same nation, they may still disagree radically about the institutions, memories, symbols and values which embody that nation and make it worthy of allegiance.

Type
Identities and Empires
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 8 , December 1998 , pp. 253 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1998

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References

1 For instance in Smith, Anthony, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford, 1986), p. 136Google Scholar.

2 Thomas, Emory M., Robert E. Lee (New York, 1995), pp. 187–90Google Scholar.

3 On Muscovite and early modern Russian identity the English-speaking reader should consult: Halperin, D.J., ‘The Russian Land and the Russian Tsar: the Emergence of Muscovite Ideology, 1380–1408’, Forschungen zur Osteuropaischen Geschichte (1976), 23Google Scholar; Bushkovich, P., ‘The Formation of a National Consciousness in Early Modern Russia’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, X, 3–4 (1986)Google Scholar; Cherniavsky, M., ‘Russia’, in Ranum, O. (ed.), Consciousness, History and Political Culture in Early Modern Europe (Baltimore, 1975)Google Scholar; Cracraft, J., ‘Empire versus Nation: Russian Political Theory under Peter I’, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, X, 3–4 (1986)Google Scholar.

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13 These themes are covered in Hosking, G., Russia, People and Empire (London, 1997)Google Scholar.

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15 See ch. 8 of Lieven, D., Nicholas II. Emperor of all the Russians (London, 1993)Google Scholar.

16 Venturi, F., Roots of Revolution (Chicago, 1983)Google Scholar, remains the best introduction to this theme.

17 The literature on this theme is already immense and interest in nationalities' issues since the break-up of the USSR ensures its exponential growth. Kappeler, Russland als Vielvolkerreich, remains the best overall study but three recent works well deserve attention: Weeks, T. R., Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia (De Kalb, 1996)Google Scholar. Andriewsky, O., The Politics of National Identity: the Ukrainian Question in Russia 1904–12 (Harvard Ph.D., 1991)Google Scholar: Rodkiewicz, W., Russian Nationality Policy in the Western Provinces of the Empire during the Reign of Nicholas II, 1894–1005 (Harvard, Ph.D., 1996)Google Scholar.

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20 I tackle these issues in much greater detail (and with a large bibliography) in my forthcoming article in the Journal of Contemporary History entitled ‘Dilemmas of Empire 1850–1918. Power, Territory, Identity’.

21 For further comparisons between Russian and, inter alia, English empire see my ‘The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union as Imperial Polities’, Journal of Contemporary History, 30, 4 (1995)Google Scholar and my forthcoming Empire and Russia. As regards the impact on Russian consciousness of imperial conquests two recent English-language books are Slezkine, Y., Arctic Mirrors. Russia and the Small Peoples of the North (Ithaca, 1994)Google Scholar and Layton, S., Russian Literature and Empire. Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy (Cambridge, 1994)Google Scholar. In this context Layton's book is inevitably more useful, since the Caucasus made a vastly greater impact on the Russian imagination than was the case with the Siberian natives.

22 On the Cossacks the English-speaking reader must rely on Longworth, P., The Cossacks (London, 1969)Google Scholar for a survey, which should be supplemented by H. Stockl, Die Entstehung des Kosakentums. On Siberia the place to start is chapter 1 of Wood, A. (ed.), The History of Siberia. From Russian Conquest to Revolution (London, 1991)Google Scholar. On the regionalists, see S. Watrous, ‘The Regionalist Conception of Siberia, 1860–1920’, ch. 7 in Diment, G. and Slezkine, Y. (eds.), Between Heaven and Hell. The Myth of Siberia in Russian Culture (New York, 1993)Google Scholar and Faust, W., Russlands Goldener Boden. Der Sibirische Regionalismus in der zweiten. Hälfte des 19 Jahrhunderts (Cologne, 1980)Google Scholar.

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24 See e.g. the comments of Alexsei Kuropatkin, the Minister of War and a great nationalist, on visiting the Baltic provinces in 1903: p. 7 in Dnevnik A.N. Kuropatkina, (Nizhpoligraph, N. Novgorod, 1923)Google Scholar.

25 Weeks, Nation, and Rodkiewicz, Russian, both stress this point as do experts on Russian policy towards the Jews. See chs. 2 and 3 of Rogger, H., Jewish Policies and Right-Wing Politics in Imperial Russia (London, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Klier, J. D., Imperial Russia's Jewish Question 1855–81 (Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar.

26 Quested, R., ‘Matey’ Imperialists. The Tsarist Russians in Manchuria 1855–1917 (Hong Kong, 1987)Google Scholar is usefully compared with Susan Layton's work on an earlier era and region, though a little caution is required given the differences between Layton's literary sources and those deployed by Quested.

27 See my comments in ch. 8 of Lieven, , Nicholas II (London, 1993)Google Scholar.

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19 On the treatment of the church see e.g. Daly, J., ‘“Storming the Last Citadel”. The Boshevik Assault on the Church, 1922’, in Brovkin, V. N. (ed.), The Bolsheviks in Russian Society (New Haven, 1997)Google Scholar.

30 NB a comment by a delegate to the tenth Party Congress in 1921: ‘The transformation of Russia from a colony of Europe into the center of a world movement has filled with pride and with a special kind of Russian patriotism the hearts of all those who are connected with the revolution’Google Scholar; by Barghoorn, F. C., Soviet Russian Nationalism (Oxford, 1956). p. 27Google Scholar.

31 See in particular vol. VII of Toynbee, A.J., A Study of History (Oxford, 1954)Google Scholar. On empire in the first millennium, Fowden, G., Empire to Commonwealth. Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993)Google Scholar, provokes many thoughts.

32 Brewer, A, Marxist Theories of Imperialism. A Critical Survey (London, 1980)Google Scholar is a useful introduction to this tradition of political thinking. Pipes, Richard, The Formation of the Soviet Union (Cambridge, 1954)Google Scholar, remains the best book on this subject.

33 On the Stalinist middle class and its values see above all V. Dunham, In Stalin's Time.

34 Fitzpatrick, S., ‘Culture and Politics under Stalin. A Reappraisal’, Slavic Review 06 1976), vol. 35, 2, pp. 211–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 The literature on Stalinism is already immense and is certain to grow greatly, since this is at present the main focus of Western research into Russian history. Of recent works, Kotkin, Stephen, Magnetic Mountain. Stalinism as a Civilisation Berkley, 1995)Google Scholar is not merely among the best but also comes closest to the theme of my article.

36 On the non-Russian nationalities, see Simon, G., Nationalism and Policy toward the Nationalities in the Soviet Union (Boulder, 1991)Google Scholar. On Russia, Dunlop, J., The Faces of Contemporary Russian Nationalism (Princeton, 1983)Google Scholar, traces the rise of dissident Russian nationalism. R. Szporluk is illuminating on the dilemmas faced by Russian nationalists contemplating the USSR's demise: ch. 1, ‘Imperial Legacy and the Soviet Nationalities Problem’, in Hajda, L. and Beissinger, M. (eds.) The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society (Westview, Boulder, 1990)Google Scholar. For a balanced over-all survey of the Soviet Union's position on the eve of Perestroyka see Dibb, P., The Soviet Union: The Incomplete Superpower (London 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 I watched the parade and commented on it for Canadian television.