Conflicting "Homeland Myths" and Nation-State Building in Postcommunist Russia

Bibliographic Data

ID5084733
AuthorsVera Tolz (0000-0002-7118-9918, University of Salford, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume57
Issue2
Pages267-294
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2501851
OpenAlexW2319050749
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited22

The second disintegration of the empire this century has reopened the debate over Russian state and nation building with direct implications both for Russia's reform process and for its relations with other newly independent states. In December 1991, the Russian Federation was transformed into an independent state as a historically formed regional entity, not as a nation state. Scholars argue that the Russian empire was built "at the cost of Russia's own sense of nationhood." In the past, the efforts spent conquering and ruling vast territories and diverse populations diverted the Russian people and their leaders from the task of consolidation and nation building. This was true not only in the prerevolutionary but also in the Soviet period, during which the majority of Russians saw the entire USSR rather than the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) as their homeland. Now, after the disintegration of the USSR, the questions arise whether the majority of Russians can accept the borders of the Russian Federation as final, and, if not, what the alternative myths of Russia's national homeland are? The answers to these questions determine whether Russians will ever be able to define themselves other than as an imperial people

Consolidation (business · Economic history · Empire · Geography · Homeland · Mythology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Russian federation · Sociology · State (computer science · Classics · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · History · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Soviet and Russian History

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub