Imperial versus National Discourse: The Case of Russia

Abstract. It is inaccurate and misleading to apply the term ‘nationalism’ to Russia prior to the present day. Both Tsarist and Soviet leaders sought to maintain an empire and not a nation‐state, and their national consciousness was imperial rather than national. The lack of Russian nationalism was crucial for Russian history since it explains the failure of both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. Modern societies cannot be successfully constructed upon the basis of imperial thinking. The absence of Russian nationalism also has significance for nationalism theory. Russia possessed the social, political and cultural characteristics that have been adduced as ‘causes’ of nationalism by a wide variety of scholars, yet Russia failed to develop a nationalist movement. This suggests that what is crucial to modem nationalism is the appearance of a particularist, secular ideology, since the most notable aspect in which Russia differed from Europe was Russia's universalistic, religious and imperialist discourse of national identity.     

Provincial Officialdom in Late Imperial Russia

In response to escalating social tensions in the late nineteenth-century Russian Empire, provincial officials closed ranks, creating a corporation to defend their shared interests.     

Governors,Provincial Administration,and Local Self-Government in Late Imperial Russia

After long neglect in the Soviet period, the study of Russia's provincial governors and local institutions of self-government is attracting new interest among contemporary historians, who struggle with questions that preoccupied their late imperial predecessors.     

The Grammar of Imperial History

FREDERICK MADDEN and DAVID FIELDHOUSE, eds. ‘The Empire of the Bretaignes’, 1175–1688: The Foundation of a Colonial System of Government: Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth, Volume I. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xxix, 669; $55.00 (us); The Classical Period of the First British Empire, 1680–1783, Volume II. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. xxxiii, 628. –65.00 (US).