The Birth of the Russian Empire. Concepts and practices of political domination in the 18th century
29.99 €
Out of stock
The Birth of the Russian Empire. Concepts and practices of political domination in the 18th century
29.99 €
After a major victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, Tsar Peter the Great assumed the title of "Emperor". If before that the country had been called Muscovite Russia, the Moscow Kingdom, the Russian Land or Russia, it was now symbolically transformed into an "empire". Did this mean that there was some fundamental change in the development of the country? And if so, what exactly had changed? Was there no empire in the perception of the state elite before? And what did the contemporaries of Peter the Great and his successors understand by "empire"? Did this understanding lay the foundations for the imperial consciousness that exists today? Ricarda Vulpius's book explores the eighteenth century as a turning point in the country's history and shows that the process of empire formation in tsarist Russia did not follow an exclusive "special" path. The discourses and practices of civilization, acculturation, and assimilation that the Russian state operated with reveal numerous parallels with the ways of thinking and actions of other colonial empires. By analyzing the institution of subjection and the practice of hostage-taking of non-Christian peoples of the East and South, the researcher shows how the idea of assimilation, which existed in Russia before the eighteenth century, merged with the European civilizing discourse and led to the formation of a comprehensive imperial consciousness of the Russian elite. Ricarda Vulpius is a professor at the University of Münster and a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Study Europe