In Search of a New Imperial History

Gerasimov, Ilya; Glebov, Serguei; Kaplunovskii, Alexander; Mogilner, Marina; Semyonov, Alexander

doi:10.1353/imp.2005.0007

Cited by 40 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Third, and relatedly, this underscores what Rieber (2000) has called the "borderland factor" in the emergence of an ideology and its social carriers (Gerasimov et al 2005;Brown 2004;Rieber 2004;Hirsch 2005, chap. 4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…This was not yet a modern class society but an intricate multiethnic empire: socioeconomic class positions were cross-cut by traditional status categories of estate (soslovie), confession, occupation, region, culture, ethnicity, and emergent nationalities. In fact, the field has recently seen excellent empirical research on the Russian Empire's nationalities and the sociological workings of the imperial realm (see, e.g., Lieven 2000; Suny and Martin 2001;Lohr 2003;Brown 2004;Miller 2004; Miller and Rieber 2004;Gerasimov et al 2005). Not only did these nonclass identities predominate in both official categorization and self-ascription (Reshetar 1952;Freeze 1986; Haimson 1988;Wirtschafter 1992Wirtschafter , 1994Fitzpatrick 1993;Slocum 1998;Pomeranz 1999;Cadoit 2005), but there was also an exceedingly thin distinction between foreign and nationality policies…”

Section: Class Ethnicity and Bolshevismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Ethnic Roots of Class Universalism: Rethinking the “Russian” Revolutionary Elite

Riga

2008

American Journal of Sociology

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The Ethnic Roots of Class Universalism: Rethinking the "Russian" Revolutionary Elite 1 Liliana Riga University of EdinburghThis article retrieves the ethnic roots that underlie a universalist class ideology. Focusing empirically on the emergence of Bolshevism, it provides biographical analysis of the Russian Revolution's elite, finding that two-thirds were ethnic minorities from across the Russian Empire. After exploring class and ethnicity as intersectional experiences of varying significance to the Bolsheviks' revolutionary politics, this article suggests that socialism's class universalism found affinity with those seeking secularism in response to religious tensions, a universalist politics where ethnic violence and sectarianism were exclusionary, and an ethnically neutral and tolerant "imperial" imaginary where Russification and geopolitics were particularly threatening or imperial cultural frameworks predominated. The claim is made that socialism's class universalism was as much a product of ethnic particularism as it was constituted by it.Most sociology on the Russian Revolution assumes that its leadership was from the Russian intelligentsia and its socialist ideology was a response to the class conflicts and exclusions generated by an autocratic, industrializing Russian state (Moore 1966;Skocpol 1979;McDaniel 1988 American Journal of Sociology 650 tionary elite. And, in a highly distinctive social composition, ethnicity was strongly aligned with class, suggesting that class and ethnicity were intersectional experiences of varying significance in the revolutionary radicalism of the Bolshevik elite. Bolshevism may, therefore, represent an interesting case in the construction of universalist class ideology from ethnic networks and experiences. Whether socialist or liberal, universalist ideologies are usually products not of "citizens of the world," but of very specific material and social conditions (Calhoun 2003). But if the social and political conditions that give rise to and sustain universalist ideas are kept analytically distinct from the ideological content of the universalist projects themselves, then a universalist ideology about classes and class conflict may not necessarily be a response to class conflict alone. Indeed, this article argues that Bolshevism's Russian-inflected class universalism was especially appealing in those social locations across the Russian Empire most affected by ethnic or imperial exclusions. It particularly appealed to those seeking secularism in response to religious tensions, a universalist politics where ethnic violence and sectarianism were exclusionary, and an ethnically neutral and tolerant "imperial" imaginary where geopolitics or R...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Class Ethnicity and Bolshevismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethnic Roots of Class Universalism: Rethinking the “Russian” Revolutionary Elite

Riga

2008

American Journal of Sociology

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“…Indeed, Darwin (2010, 386) has redefined the relationship between empire and ethnicity as an 'imperial ethnicity'. He argues that the cohabitation of various ethnic groups within the British Empire resulted in social and political practices and shared cultural and ethnic ties being invented in order to forge supranational identities based upon imperial citizenship (Darwin 2010;Gerasimov et al 2005).…”

Section: The Nation and Nation-state: Ethnic And Civic Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The United Kingdom and British Empire: a figurational approach

Black

2018

Rethinking History

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Drawing upon the work of Norbert Elias and the process [figurational] sociology perspective, this article examines how state formation processes are related to, and, affected by, expanding and declining chains of international interdependence. In contrast to civic and ethnic conceptions, this approach focuses on the emergence of the nation/nation-state as grounded in broader processes of historical and social development. In doing so, state formation processes within the United Kingdom are related to the expansion and decline of the British Empire. That is, by focusing on the functional dynamics that are embedded in collective groups, one is able to consider how the UK's 'state' and 'imperial' figurations were interdependently related to changes in both the UK and the former British Empire. Consequently, by locating contemporary UK relations in the historical context of former imperial relationships, nationalism studies can go 'beyond' the nation/nation-state in order to include broader processes of imperial expansion and decline. Here, the relationship between empire and nationalism can offer a valuable insight into contemporary political movements, especially within former imperial groups.

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“…The argument is indeed convincing given that Smith ascribed pivotal importance to the First World War which brought not only Russia, but also its other participants to the brink of collapse, with the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and German Empires all dissolving in the process. Smith also makes good use of the "imperial turn" in historiography [Gerasimov et al 2005;Sunderland 2016] maintaining that "Russia" for him is not an isolated and homogeneous state but rather a composite Eurasian space which, in the early twentieth century, underwent imperial transformation [Smith S. A. 2017, p. 4].…”

Section: история русской революции в контексте ее столетияmentioning

confidence: 99%

A history for the centenary of the Russian revolution

Sablin

2017

Vestnik SPbSU. History

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In Search of a New Imperial History

Cited by 40 publications

References 51 publications

The Ethnic Roots of Class Universalism: Rethinking the “Russian” Revolutionary Elite

The Ethnic Roots of Class Universalism: Rethinking the “Russian” Revolutionary Elite

The United Kingdom and British Empire: a figurational approach

A history for the centenary of the Russian revolution

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