Russian Imperialism and the Medieval Past

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-80270-176-0
Verlag: ARC Humanities Press

Buch, Englisch, 118 Seiten, Format (B × H): 111 mm x 173 mm, Gewicht: 132 g

Reihe: Past Imperfect

Vladimir Putin justifies his imperialist policy by use of the past. For him, Russia has always been an Empire and must remain so. The story of Russian imperialism has deep historical roots, and this book shows how Byzantium, the most powerful medieval and Christian empire, is repeatedly presented in Russian history as the source of the empire’s imperial legitimacy.

The author reflects on the role of art and the humanities (especially history and art history) within the power ambitions of regimes and political parties over the last two centuries as tools for the repeated reinvention of an empire’s identity; an identity built on a multitude of invented pasts. Within this self-referential narrative, Byzantium becomes the ultimate authority justifying the aggression of the Russian state, and Orthodox belief becomes the bridge linking the medieval past with the present. One of the paradoxes of this narrative is the use of the same past by regimes as different as those of the last Romanovs, Stalin, and Putin, leading to a fundamental question: does this propaganda image really underlie the core identity of Russia?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Foletti, Ivan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Byzantinisch
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Kolonialismus, Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Völkerwanderung und Mittelalter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

A Word by Way of Introduction

Chapter 1: The Russian Empire and Byzantium: From Napoleon to Nicholas II

Chapter 2: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin: Anticlericalism, the Blood of Liberators, and Imperialism

Chapter 3: Luzhkov, Putin, and the Dream of the Return of Empire

In Conclusion: Trauma, Imperialism, and the Russia of Tomorrow

Further Reading

Über Autor(innen)

Foletti, Ivan
Ivan Foletti is professor at Masaryk University, privatdozent at the University of Helsinki, and head of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies in Brno. He is director of the international journal Convivium (2014–) and of the Hans Belting Library. He is also the author of eight monographs.