Overview

Defining the Others, “them”, in relation to one’s own reference group, “us”, has been an essential phase in the formation of collective identities in any given country or region. In the case of Russia, the formulation of these binary definitions – sometimes taking a form of enemy images – can be traced all the way to medieval texts, in which religion represented the dividing line. Further, the ongoing expansion of the empire transferred numerous “external others” into internal minorities. The chapters of this edited volume examine the development and contexts of various images, perceptions and categories of the Others in Russia from the 16th century Muscovy to the collapse of the Russian empire.

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"""...[T]he tapestry like character of the edited volume and its sustained research focus make the book a rich and multifaceted study on producing images of the other in Russian history."" — Diego Repenning, Ab Imperio “This timely volume brings together exciting new research on the perception of ‘others’ during four centuries of Russia’s imperial history. While older research often highlighted adherence to Orthodoxy as the main marker of Russianness, this volume’s case studies provide a far more nuanced picture. They demonstrate that different—and often contradicting—markers of identity existed side by side and that perceptions of internal and external ‘others’ were inextricably interwoven. Processes of incorporation and differentiation took place simultaneously and led to a constant shifting of borders between those perceived as ‘Russians’ and the ‘others.’ Ultimately, this book indicates that these contradictions resulted from the ambiguities of Russia’s own identity as a multiethnic state oscillating between empire and nation, with consequences to the Soviet era and beyond.” — Ulrich Hofmeister, University of Munich “From pre-Petrine depictions of steppe dwellers to eighteenth-century categorizations of foreigners and non-Orthodox people, from Pushkin’s encounters with Circassians to imagined Crimean Tatars, from early photographs of the multi-ethnic Caucasus to zoomorphic depictions of the enemy around 1900—this book has it all. Starting in the sixteenth century, it provides a rich tableau of images and imaginations that populate the extensive canon of Russian perceptions of otherness, exoticism, xenophobia, and plain national stereotypes before 1917. At a time when Russian concepts of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ loom large again and dehumanization of the ethnic or religious other has become daily currency, this collection of articles provides historical depth to how Russianness was construed through the ages.” — Hubertus F. Jahn, Professor of the History of Russia and the Caucasus, University of Cambridge “Hegel wrote that subjective Spirit comes to recognize its existence outside itself by meeting itself in the minds of others. More recently, Axel Honneth has examined the construction of our social world as a sequence of recognition relations, often protracted and contentious, some achieving mutual recognition through the acceptance of difference and the according of respect, some refusing such recognition. This is one of the most important subjects for the writing of cultural history, and Images of Otherness in Russia, 1547-1917 engages it directly. The book is impressive in its breadth: it deals with a half-millenium of the successive image construction of a wide range of peoples encountered in the course of expansion of the Russian Empire—Crimean Tatars, indigenous Siberians, Central Asian Turkic peoples, Caucasus mountaineers, the Jews, the political and racial ‘enemies’ of the late Empire (such as the Germans and the ‘Yellow Peril’). It is also attentive to the successive cultural and legal categories used to classify these Others (inozemtsy, inorodtsy, inovertsy), the interests such classification served, and how it shaped Imperial policy.” — Brian Davies, University of Texas at San Antonio"

This timely volume brings together exciting new research on the perception of 'others' during four centuries of Russia's imperial history. While older research often highlighted adherence to Orthodoxy as the main marker of Russianness, this volume's case studies provide a far more nuanced picture. They demonstrate that different-and often contradicting-markers of identity existed side by side and that perceptions of internal and external 'others' were inextricably interwoven. Processes of incorporation and differentiation took place simultaneously and led to a constant shifting of borders between those perceived as 'Russians' and the 'others.' Ultimately, this book indicates that these contradictions resulted from the ambiguities of Russia's own identity as a multiethnic state oscillating between empire and nation, with consequences to the Soviet era and beyond. - Ulrich Hofmeister, University of Munich From pre-Petrine depictions of steppe dwellers to eighteenth-century categorizations of foreigners and non-Orthodox people, from Pushkin's encounters with Circassians to imagined Crimean Tatars, from early photographs of the multi-ethnic Caucasus to zoomorphic depictions of the enemy around 1900-this book has it all. Starting in the sixteenth century, it provides a rich tableau of images and imaginations that populate the extensive canon of Russian perceptions of otherness, exoticism, xenophobia, and plain national stereotypes before 1917. At a time when Russian concepts of 'us' versus 'them' loom large again and dehumanization of the ethnic or religious other has become daily currency, this collection of articles provides historical depth to how Russianness was construed through the ages. - Hubertus F. Jahn, Professor of the History of Russia and the Caucasus, University of Cambridge Hegel wrote that subjective Spirit comes to recognize its existence outside itself by meeting itself in the minds of others. More recently, Axel Honneth has examined the construction of our social world as a sequence of recognition relations, often protracted and contentious, some achieving mutual recognition through the acceptance of difference and the according of respect, some refusing such recognition. This is one of the most important subjects for the writing of cultural history, and Images of Otherness in Russia, 1547-1917 engages it directly. The book is impressive in its breadth: it deals with a half-millenium of the successive image construction of a wide range of peoples encountered in the course of expansion of the Russian Empire-Crimean Tatars, indigenous Siberians, Central Asian Turkic peoples, Caucasus mountaineers, the Jews, the political and racial 'enemies' of the late Empire (such as the Germans and the 'Yellow Peril'). It is also attentive to the successive cultural and legal categories used to classify these Others (inozemtsy, inorodtsy, inovertsy), the interests such classification served, and how it shaped Imperial policy. - Brian Davies, University of Texas at San Antonio

Author Information

Kati Parppei is a university lecturer (title of docent) in the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Her interests include the history of mentalities and ideas, image studies, Russian history, and borderland issues. Bulat Rakhimzianov is currently a PhD student at University College Dublin. His research interests include the relations between the Tatar khanates and Moscow in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the uses of Tatar medieval history in contemporary historical writings and politics.

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