After Empire: Nationalist Imagination and Symbolic Politics in Russia and Eurasia in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Century

Description

Igor Torbakov explores the nexus between various forms of Russian political imagination and the apparently cyclic process of the 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 twentieth 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 eighteenth century, "Russia" has been a permanent geopolitical fixture on Europe's northeastern 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) contemporary Russian elites' exercises in historical legitimation. Contents Foreword Introduction: Debating Russian Nationalism and Empire Acknowledgements 1. Becoming Eurasian: The Intellectual Odyssey of Georgii Vladimirovich Vernadsky Biographical Context The Eurasianist Framework George Vernadsky and the History of Russia-Eurasia 2. From the Other Shore: Reflections of Russian Émigré Thinkers on Soviet Nationality Policies, 1920s-1930s 3. Defining the “True” Nationalism: Russian Ethnic Nationalists versus Eurasianists Russian Nationalism’s Perennial Dilemmas New-Generation Nationalists Coming of Age Ethnonationalists, Eurasianists and the Integrity of the Imperial Geo-Body Debating Russian Eurasianism Crafting the “True” Russian Nationalism? Conclusion 4. “Middle Continent” or “Island Russia:” Eurasianist Legacy and Vadim Tsymbursky’s Revisionist Geopolitics Debating Russian Identity Visions of Eurasia The Eurasianist Imagery and the Dilemmas of Russian Foreign Policy Vadim Tsymbursky’s Geopolitics Conclusion 5. Neo-Ottomanism versus Neo-Eurasianism? Nationalism and Symbolic Geography in Postimperial Turkey and Russia Imperial Continuities in the Turkish Political Imagination In Search of Turkish Eurasianism The Birth of Neo-Ottomanism Conclusion 6. “This is a Strife of Slavs Among Themselves:” Understanding Russian-Ukrainian Relations as a Conflict of Contested Identities I. II. III. IV. V. VI. 7. Ukraine and Russia: Entangled Histories, Contested Identities, and a War of Narratives I. II. III. IV. V. 8. Symbolic Geographies of Empire: The Ukraine Factor in Russia-Europe Relations I. II. III. IV. 9. Celebrating Red October: A Story of the Ten Anniversaries of the Russian Revolution, 1927–2017 Introduction Forging the Myth of Red October 1927 1937 Postwar: The Rise of a Dual Myth 1947 Ottepel’, Zastoi, and Perestroika 1957 1967 1977 1987 October in the Post-Communist Era 1997 2007 2017 Conclusion 10. Divisive Historical Memories: Russia and Eastern Europe Why Escalation? Europe’s Shifting Memory Landscape: Foreign Policy Implications Russia’s Ambiguous Symbolic Politics Conclusion 11. The Russian Orthodox Church and Contestations over History in Contemporary Russia Putin the Historian The Kremlin and the Patriarchate: Seeing Eye to Eye? “Back in the USSR” The Russian Orthodox Church Confronts the Soviet Past: Three Church Subcultures Conclusion