Denis Vovchenko. Containing Balkan Nationalism

The study of Russia’s cultural and political engagement with the Balkan Peninsula in the half-century before the Great War has been highly enlightening. The tapestry of populations, with diverse native languages, various ethnic allegiances, and different religious affiliations, living in close proximity to one another within that region, began to develop modern forms of identity. Due to this diversity, the study of imperial Russian foreign policy in the Balkan shatterzone of empires has been fraught with subjective impressions. By and large, however, the archives demonstrate the tsars’ consistent strategy of maintaining a docile but durable Ottoman Empire. In cultural terms, Russian thinkers of the time began to reflect and write in new ways about the bonds connecting Slavs and the Eastern Orthodox world. Diverse claims for intervention on behalf of the sultan’s Orthodox Christians inspired and engaged a colorful group of characters, including ambassador to Constantinople Nikolai Ignat’ev, conservative philosopher Konstantin Leont’ev, and the leader of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Palestine, Antonin Kapustin. In his new book Containing Balkan Nationalism: Imperial Russia and Ottoman Christians, 1856–1914, Denis Vovchenko vividly portrays these and like-minded individuals in an original assessment of Russia’s multifaceted efforts to shape religion and identity in the Balkans. Based on scholarly essays, newspaper articles, and archival materials in various languages, the book argues that among Russian officials and the broad reading public, a doctrine called Pan-Orthodoxy (or Greco-Slavism) was a common cultural response to Balkan independence movements. The resulting pro–ecumenical patriarchate perspective provides a significant contribution to the study of religion, Russian policy, and identity formation in the Balkans.

Ancient history · Hegemony · Independence (probability theory) · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Classics · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law