Toward a genealogy of imperial consciousness in Russia

Abstract

This paper explores the imperial consciousness in Russia. The author reconstructs the peculiarities of premodern political culture of the Russian peasantry and comes to the conclusion that, against what is widely believed, one cannot legitimately assert that Russians have been an 'imperial nation' since the 15th or 16th century. In fact, peasant political consciousness (one has to be reminded that till 1930-ies peasantry remained the overwhelming majority in Russia) retained a radically local character and remained limited to the level of a peasant community. The masses had a very foggy idea of imperial institutes and never identified themselves with these, let alone understood the aims of imperial politics. The masses embraced neither the idea of Russian messianism (because they did not consider themselves as Russians yet) nor the idea of the Orthodox messianism (because popular Orthodoxy was mainly reduced to ritualism). The complex of ideas and values connected with the notion of empire entered mass consciousness of Russians only during the Soviet period. It was connected with the modernization of the Soviet society that made it possible for the masses to perceive the imperial idea taking into consideration that in 'the Soviet empire' Russians assumed the position of the 'imperial' nation. The post-imperial syndrome in contemporary Russia, therefore, is rooted only in the Soviet era.