Russia as a Multinational Polity

general courses

The course will look at the history of Russia (roughly from the 16th century untill 1921) as a multinational and multi-ethnic polity. The "canonical" version of Russian historical narrative neglected this dimension of the history of Russia. This course is meant to provide a corrective to the traditional approach. It will look at the relationship between the imperial centre and Imperial borderlands and will also address the evolution of the Russian national identity and its relation with the Empire.

The course will address the follwong topics:

1. The emergence of a multinational Muscovite polity as a result of conquest of Kazan

2. The pre-modern paradigm: the case of Baltic Provinces and the Cossack Hetmanate

3. The appearance of a modern national idea and its consequences for the Empire

4. The incorporation of the Rzeczpospolita - the birth of “the Polish Question"

5. The Empire's attempts to meet the challenge of modern nationalism.

6. The Polish Question, 1831-1905

7. The Rise of the Ukrainian National Idea and Movement.

8. The "Eastern" Nationalities - The Kazan Tartars

9. The Volga nationalitis and the “Ilminskii System”

10. The Conquest and the administration of Transcaucasia

11. Imperial policy towards Jews and its evolution

12. The National Question(s) during the Revolution and the Civil War (1917-1921)

13. The Bolshevik attempt to solve “the national question” – the policy of “korenizatsiia”

14. Stalin’s revision of “korenizatsiia” policy 1928-1953

15. The nationality fator in the collapse of the USSR, 1986-1991

Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland 1855-1914, ed. Edward C. Thaden ; coaut. Michael H. Haltzel [et al.]. (Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1981)

Alexei Miller, The Ukrainian question : the Russian Empire and nationalism in the nineteenth century

Theodore R. Weeks, Nation and state in late imperial Russia : nationalism and Russification on the western frontier, 1863-1914

Andreas Kappeler, The Russian empire : a multiethnic history (Harlow [etc.] : Longman, 2001)

Richard Pipes. The formation of the Soviet Union : communism and nationalism 1917-1923

Theodore R. Weeks, Vilnius between nations, 1795-2000 (DeKalb : Northern Illinois University Press, 2015) [relevant chapters]

Alexey Miller, Natsiia, Narod, Narodnost' in Russia in the 19th Century: Some Introductory Remarks to the History of Concepts, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge, Bd. 56, H. 3 (2008)

David B. Saunders, Historians and Concepts of Nationality in Early Nineteenth-Century Russia, The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1982)

T. Martin, The German Question in Russia, 1848-1896, Russian History, Vol. 18, No. 4 (WINTER 1991 / HIVER 1991),

D. Staliūnas, Between Russification and Divide and Rule: Russian Nationality Policy in the Western Borderlands in mid-19th Century, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge, Bd. 55, H. 3 (2007)

Pogroms : anti-Jewish violence in modern Russian history, ed. by John D. Klier and Shlomo Lambroza

Russia's Orient : imperial borderlands and peoples, 1700-1917, Daniel R. Brower and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds.

Frank T. McCarthy, The Kazan' Missionary Congress, Source: Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1973)

J.L. Black, Interpretations of Poland in Nineteenth Century Russian Nationalist-Oriented Historiography The Polidh Review Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn, 1972),

Paul W. Werth, The Qazaq Steppe and Islamic Administrative Exceptionalism: A Comparisonwith Buddhism Among Buriats

According to the student's choice and the course description

Written exam. Attendance of lectures is obligatory.