As nationalism spread across nineteenth-century Europe, Russia's
national identity remained murky: there was no clear distinction
between the Russian nation and the expanding multiethnic empire
that called itself 'Russian.' When Tsar Alexander II's Great
Reforms (1855-1870s) allowed some freedom for public debate,
Russian nationalist intellectuals embarked on a major project -
which they undertook in daily press, popular historiography, and
works of fiction - of finding the Russian nation within the empire
and rendering the empire in nationalistic terms. From the Shadow of
Empire traces how these nationalist writers refashioned key
historical myths - the legend of the nation's spiritual birth, the
tale of the founding of Russia, stories of Cossack independence -
to portray the Russian people as the ruling nationality, whose
character would define the empire. In an effort to press the
government to alter its traditional imperial policies, writers from
across the political spectrum made the cult of military victories
into the dominant form of national myth-making: in the absence of
popular political participation, wars allowed for the people's
involvement in public affairs and conjured an image of unity
between ruler and nation. With their increasing reliance on the war
metaphor, Reform-era thinkers prepared the ground for the brutal
Russification policies of the late nineteenth century and
contributed to the aggressive character of twentieth-century
Russian nationalism.
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