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CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN IDENTITY BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2005

PETER J. S. DUNCAN
Affiliation:
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London

Abstract

This is a review of recent English-language scholarship on the development of Russian identity since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The first part examines literature on the economic and political changes in the Russian Federation, revealing how scholars became more sceptical about the possibility of Russia building a Western-type liberal democracy. The second part investigates approaches to the study of Russian national identity. The experience of empire, in both the tsarist and Soviet periods, gave Russians a weak sense of nationhood; ethnic Russians identified with the multi-national Soviet Union. Seeking legitimacy for the new state, President El'tsin sought to create a civic identity focused on the multi-national Russian Federation. The Communist and nationalist opposition continued to promote an imperial identity, focused on restoring the USSR or creating some other formation including the Russian-speaking population in the former Soviet republics. The final section discusses accounts of the two Chechen wars, which scholars see as continuing Russia's imperial policy and harming relations with Russia's Muslim population. President Putin's co-operation with the West against ‘terrorism’ has not led the West to accept Russia as one of its own, due to increasing domestic repression and authoritarianism.

Type
Historiographical Reviews
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I am most grateful to Bobo Lo and an anonymous referee for their comments. All responsibility for errors and judgements is mine alone.