Marlene Laruell Russian Nationalism and Ukraine
Scholars have debated Russia’s nationalism for decades. Even during the final years of the Cold War, they were arguing over whether nationalism was Russia’s traditional “illness”, inherited from the czarist regime and its Black Hundreds anti-Semitic militia, and then reactivated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Or was Russia actually an “a-national” country a former empire that became a communist internationalist homeland and was then unable to transform itself into a “normal” (read Western-style) nation-state?
Since this kind of broad, overarching definition of what is and is not nationalist creates endless debate, let us try asking different questions: What are the groups that use nationalist agendas in Russia today and in the service of legitimizing what kinds of actions or world views? How is the crisis in Ukraine a product of—or a game-changer for—nationalism in Russia?
Source: Current History, 2014
Scholars have debated Russia’s nationalism for decades. Even during the final years of the Cold War, they were arguing over whether nationalism was Russia’s traditional “illness”, inherited from the czarist regime and its Black Hundreds anti-Semitic militia, and then reactivated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Or was Russia actually an “a-national” country a former empire that became a communist internationalist homeland and was then unable to transform itself into a “normal” (read Western-style) nation-state?
Since this kind of broad, overarching definition of what is and is not nationalist creates endless debate, let us try asking different questions: What are the groups that use nationalist agendas in Russia today and in the service of legitimizing what kinds of actions or world views? How is the crisis in Ukraine a product of—or a game-changer for—nationalism in Russia?
Source: Current History, 2014
Scholars have debated Russia’s nationalism for decades. Even during the final years of the Cold War, they were arguing over whether nationalism was Russia’s traditional “illness”, inherited from the czarist regime and its Black Hundreds anti-Semitic militia, and then reactivated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Or was Russia actually an “a-national” country a former empire that became a communist internationalist homeland and was then unable to transform itself into a “normal” (read Western-style) nation-state?
Since this kind of broad, overarching definition of what is and is not nationalist creates endless debate, let us try asking different questions: What are the groups that use nationalist agendas in Russia today and in the service of legitimizing what kinds of actions or world views? How is the crisis in Ukraine a product of—or a game-changer for—nationalism in Russia?
Source: Current History, 2014
Scholars have debated Russia’s nationalism for decades. Even during the final years of the Cold War, they were arguing over whether nationalism was Russia’s traditional “illness”, inherited from the czarist regime and its Black Hundreds anti-Semitic militia, and then reactivated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Or was Russia actually an “a-national” country a former empire that became a communist internationalist homeland and was then unable to transform itself into a “normal” (read Western-style) nation-state?
Since this kind of broad, overarching definition of what is and is not nationalist creates endless debate, let us try asking different questions: What are the groups that use nationalist agendas in Russia today and in the service of legitimizing what kinds of actions or world views? How is the crisis in Ukraine a product of—or a game-changer for—nationalism in Russia?
Source: Current History, 2014