Decolonizing Russia? : disentangling debates / Adam Lenton and co-authors.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lenton, Adam, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in Soviet and post-Soviet history 2753-5290

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Decolonization--Russia (Federation).

Decolonization.

Imperialism.

Former Soviet republics--Politics and government.

Former Soviet republics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (78 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 radically changed the way many viewed the nature of the Russian state. The centrality of resentment and imperial nostalgia in Russian narratives led many to argue that Russian imperialism was a key force behind the invasion. By extension, this led to the idea that decolonization - largely in scholarship, but also among some policy circles - offered a way to better understanding Russia in this new context. To this end, this Element examines the debates over decolonization in the Russian case. It begins by contextualizing these debates through an examination of Russia's historical development as an empire. It then identifies and disentangles three key focal points: decolonization as domestic Russian politics, the transnational politics of decolonization, and decolonization as a scholarly endeavor. By doing so, this Element shows where decolonization has merit, but also where it is contested or limited.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Decolonizing Russia?: Disentangling Debates

Contents

Introduction

Contested Terminologies

Definitions in Tension: The Russian Context

About This Element

1 Identity and Empire in Russian History

Patterns of Empire-Building (1552-1917)

Layered Identities and Loyalties

Conclusion

2 The Soviet Rule: Decolonial in Form, Colonial in Content?

Population

Territory

3 Post-Socialist Transition: Decolonization and Recolonization

Perestroika: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Transformations

The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Subsequent Decolonization

Neoliberal Economic Reforms

Russia's Decentralization and Recentralization

Russia's Post-Imperial Projection at Home and Abroad

The Polysemy of Grassroots Decolonization Claims

4 Decolonization and Its International Dimension

Decolonization: A Longtime Battlefield for Competition between the USA and Russia

Russia's Branding as an Anticolonial Power

European Memory Wars and Russia's Imperial/Colonial Past

The New Activism of "Dismantling Russia"

Performing Symbolic Politics

5 Decolonization as Scholarship

Russian's (Self-)Orientalism

The Notion of Eurasia: Global History and Imperiality

Debating the Coloniality of the Soviet Experience

Race, Racialism, Racism

Religion as Decolonization

Exploring the Post-Soviet

Global Coloniality and Academic Ghettoization

Moving Forward

Acknowledgements.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 21 Apr 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-66475-1

1-009-66476-X

1-009-66473-5

OCLC:

1574115437