The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused observers to ask, “What should the relationship be between the new Russian state and its former imperial possessions – now independent, post-Soviet republics – and to the Russian and Russian-speaking enclaves in those republics?”
The Russian elite traditionally believe that Russia and its East Slavic neighbors are – and always will be – part of a joint historical and cultural space, and ultimately the same nation. The ongoing Ukraine-Russia war can be traced to this theme that has been perpetuated in the region for the past five centuries. Other central themes include Russia’s great-power status and influence beyond its borders; the continuing relevance of religion, especially Orthodoxy, in defining Russian identity and conducting Russian policy abroad; and the importance of language and culture as tools of state policy in the region.
Prof. Serhii Plokhy’s latest work, “Lost Kingdom” traces the history of Russian nationalism at its cross-section with Russian imperialism. His work in this book suggests that to understand the dangerous nationalism of President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin today, one must first understand the history behind it.
As the book publisher’s press release describes: “From the rise of the independent Muscovite state on the ruins of the Mongol Empire to the reinvention of Russian nationhood after the fall of the USSR, ‘Lost Kingdom’ follows the efforts of the Russian elites to restore the territorial unity of the ‘lost kingdom’ – the medieval Kyivan state the provided Eastern Slavs with much of their cultural legacy. The search for a ‘lost kingdom’ as a phenomenon of European history is hardly unique to Russia, but unlike its modern European peers, Russia remains embroiled in this search today, continuing to long for imperial expansion and great-power status. It is in the pursuit of that vision, Plokhy argues, that Russia has lost its way to modern nationhood, and in that sense has become a ‘lost kingdom’ in its own right.”
The book begins with the formation of an independent Russian state in the second half of the 15th century; in six parts, Prof. Plokhy continues to the present, covering large swaths of Russian and East European history and territory.
In Part I, Prof. Plokhy outlines how, over the course of the 18th century, Russia’s imperial rulers and intellectuals managed to combine the medieval concepts of dynasty and religion with an emerging national consciousness into a new construct of Russian imperial nationhood.
In the second part, the author shows how the new construct of Russian imperial nationhood was strongly challenged by the modern European nationalism of the Poles: though defeated in battle, they defiantly refused to give up their claim to Ukrainian and Belarusian territories annexed to the Russian Empire in the late 18th century partitions of Poland.
Russia had adjusted its model of national identity by the second half of the 19th century in order to suppress the rise of modern nationalism among the Eastern Slavs. Russian imperial authorities, as described in Part III, attempted to accommodate rising Ukrainian nationalism by promoting the concept of a tripartite Russian nation consisting not of a monolithic Russian people, but of three tribes: Great Russian, Little Russian (Ukrainian) and Belarusian. The authorities also tried, not without success, to stop the development of non-Great Russian literary languages and high cultures.
The Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, covered in Part IV, destroyed the imperial model of a tripartite nation. Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians were recognized as separate nations and pitted against one another.
During the Soviet leadership, examined in Part V, it was the policy to establish a hierarchy and modus vivendi among the three nations that constituted the Slavic core of the Soviet Union. The Soviet strategy failed and the USSR collapsed in 1991.
In the final section, Prof. Plokhy details Russia’s post-Soviet attempts to forge a new national identity by reviving some of its imperial legacies, which, he argues, eventually led to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.
Dr. Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. Among his latest publications are “The Gates of Europe,” “The Last Empire” and “Yalta.”
Readers may obtain more information by contacting the publisher, Basic Books, via telephone, 212-364-1100, or via its website, www.basicbooks.com. Copies of the book can be purchased at booksellers and online retailers.