Imperial Thinking Research Articles

Neighbours of the empire: Images of Russia in Lithuanian and Polish textbooks

In the paper, we analyze the image of the Soviet Union and Russia presented by the Lithuanian and Polish states to the youngest generation. Our empirical data comes from textbooks for social sciences and recent history, beginning from the gaining independence of both countries after the First World War until the aggression on Ukraine in 2014. We focused on the ways of presenting to the pupils the politics, society, and culture of the Soviet and Russian states. We show how textbooks present the Russian state as irrational and dangerous and how the longue durée of the imperial thinking is seen as the leitmotiv of the narratives on Russian history.

Manipulation of lexical choice aspects in the creation of stereotypes and ideas in Russian propaganda

The aim of the research is to analyse the mechanisms of manipulation of lexical choice aspects in the creation of mass stereotypes and ideas in Russian propaganda (based on examples of the analysis of Russian mass media and blogs). The research employed the methods of quantitative, comparative, and statistical analysis. In the course of the study, results were obtained in the form of a count of lexical units used in five sources of Russian propaganda and an assessment of their meaning. The results give reason to draw a conclusion about the use of certain lexical choices (euphemisms, emotionally charged vocabulary, slogans, hate speech, historical myths and falsifications) by Russian propaganda to redefine military realities and justify the war crimes of the Russian occupation army. The academic novelty of the study is the selected various academic sources to illustrate the imperial thinking of Russian mass media correspondents. Prospects. Further research may diversify the materials for the lexical analysis of the mechanisms of Russian propaganda in mass media.

A Welsh Vision of Empire? Welsh Imperialists and the Indian Empire

Neither Welsh history nor imperial history has given much attention to the Welsh connection with empire. While English, Scottish, and Irish imperial history have been developed in recent decades, Wales has been largely ignored. In relation to India, there have been projects on missionaries and the East India Company, but little that focuses on Welsh imperialists during the period of Crown Rule. Despite having a smaller presence than other British nationalities, the Welsh were present in India between 1858–1947, and interacted with imperialism in ways which were distinctly Welsh. This research will explore the Welsh in India during this period and how their Welsh identity interacted with the empire to create a unique Welsh conception of imperialism. Constructed in the domestic press, it emphasised Welsh understanding of indigenous peoples through their own experience of being a minority within the UK and attached itself to a strong sense of Britishness manifested in loyalty to the empire. This ideology, however, had limited impact on the ground in India, with Welsh imperialists generally conforming to the racial and class norms of British India. Welsh imperialism remained a prism through which the Welsh thought about themselves rather than a method of action. Examining this experience adds new dimensions to imperial thinking, especially in relation to how faith and language were transported, reimagined, and contested in the colonial sphere. It demonstrates how the British exported their national and regional ideological baggage which continued to influence their thinking, despite being removed from the physical landscape in which they were forged. Welsh people like Sir Lawrence Jenkins and the missionaries of the Northeast of India had tangible impacts on the colonial space which were fundamentally inspired by their Welshness. This greatly adds to our understanding of how British imperialism operated and has implications far beyond India.

The Accountants of Nineveh: Exile Jews and Capitalism in British Imperial Thinking.

This essay presents and discusses how James Rennel (1742-1830), a royal cartographer in eighteenth-century Bengal and father of British Modern Geography, presented and discussed the biblical concept of "exile" as a "practice" for the benefit of the empire. Following Rennell's readings in Biblical and Classical texts, this essay shows how Rennell intervened in contemporary European debates about Jews and trade.

AGGRESSION AGAINST GEORGIA AND UKRAINE: CONTEXT AND PARALLELS

AGGRESSION AGAINST GEORGIA AND UKRAINE: CONTEXT AND PARALLELS

ОСОБИСТИЙ ДОСВІД МІГРАЦІЇ УКРАЇНОК ПІД ЧАС РОСІЙСЬКО-УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ВІЙНИ (ЩОДЕННИКИ О. КАРІ «ЖИТТЯ ПОСЕРЕД ЖИТТЯ», Н. СУХОРУКОВОЇ «МАРІУПОЛЬ. НАДІЯ» І Т. БЕЛІМОВОЇ «БІЖЕНКА»)

The article focuses on analyzing the diaries of the Ukrainian women, their personal experience of migration during the Russian- Ukrainian war, which began with the Revolution of Dignity November 21, 2013, or the Eurorevolution, Euromaidan, the place where the events developed. It is when the Ukrainian people protested against the then prorussian leadership and its rejection of the course towards the European integration. The Heavenly Hundred February 20, 2014 is the first hundred killed insurgents in this Revolution, which continued with war. Russians did not recognize their invasion of Ukraine. They annexed Crimea too quickly – March 18, 2014. Then the Donetsk region – April 7, 2014, criminally forming the separatist, puppet Donetsk People’s Republic and, April 27, 2014, the Luhansk People’s Republic. Therefore, we are currently witnessing the period of development of a new literature about the war, which seeks an academic attention in order to analyze its multigenre, reader reception, artistic and historical value, influence on the creation of the contemporary literary canon. The diary genre was the first, after poetry, to react to this genocidal war. The diaries of O. Kari, N. Sukhorukova, and T. Belimova attracted the attention of readers, scholars, film directors, and the European community. The genre of the diary is a vivid example of auto-documentary prose, which is provocative, extraordinary, relevant in its content, form and functions, constantly developing and acquiring new genre modifications. The post-colonial approach to the analysis of diaries’ texts as historical evidence makes it possible to talk about trauma, life in trauma, colonialism, colonizer, imperial thinking, violent imposition of a totalitarian regime.

Medieval Thinkers on the Organization of Supreme Power (Form of Government)

As a rule, Russia of the XI–XIII centuries is called an early feudal monarchy in modern historical literature. In pre-revolutionary historiography, there was a widespread statement about Russia’s initial commitment to a monarchical form of government. In foreign literature, it has been transformed into an idea of the imperial thinking that has long been characteristic of Russia. Currently, the expansion of the source base, achieved as a result of scientific discoveries and the application of new research methods by modern historians, philologists, philosophers and historians of state and law, political and legal doctrines, has largely changed the perception of the level of general cultural and political and legal development of Medieval Russia. Russian mediev all thinkers gave various recommendations on the organization of state power in the country, the creation of an image of an ideal ruler, the limitation of supreme power. The article examines the ideas about the organizationof the supreme power of three of the most prominent thinkers of the XI – first quarter of the XIII centuries: Metropolitan Hilarion, the great Prince of Kiev Vladimir Monomakh and an unknown author who hid his name under the nickname Daniel the Sharpener.

The Image of Peter I as Visual Propaganda of the State Ideology in Russian Pre-revolutionary Journalism

On the basis of continuous review of 45 Russian magazines and newspapers of 1809–1918, the author of the article managed to single out a significant array of illustrations dedicated to the image of Peter I. The visual series was considered using the contextual method; at the same time, three thematic subgroups were picked out for study: Peter the Great as the Father of the Country, the formation of the imperial thinking discourse, the sacredness of the memory of Peter. Peter appears as a wise, courageous and non-standard reformer who was ready to give his life for the good of the country, while not sparing the potency of his subjects. The deification of Peter was achieved with the help of allegorical and symbolic images. Through the visual image of Peter, the editorial offices of illustrated magazines and newspapers transmitted the narratives accepted in society, forming a sense of pride in the glorious past of the Russian Empire in their readers and while comparing it with the no less glorious present.

THE RUSSIAN NEGOTIATION CULTURE THROUGH THE EYES OF FOREIGNERS

Foreign negotiators’ observations represent a valuable source of understanding the Russian negotiation culture. They pay attention to the duality and inconsistency of the Russian character, significant fluctuations in the mood of Russians, which determine the unpredictability of their behavior. However, foreign observers also point a significant experience of rational behavior within the Russian negotiation. Researchers notice the special attention that Russians pay to the issues of national security and their respect for “power” and “strength” (that sometimes is explained as “imperial thinking”). Also, Russian negotiators are persistent in defending their position, they demonstrate desire to realize it as fully as possible, they struggle for equal partnership relations and sometimes these efforts bring unilateral advantages for them. Russians want to play a leading and even dominant role during negotiations, they prefer to set the agenda and try to hide their weaknesses in aim to prevent a counterpart from taking advantage that may cause damage. Such approach explains the reluctance of Russians to make compromises, which they perceive as a manifestation of weakness. Russians trust and cooperate primarily with members of their community (“intracultural negotiations”) and demonstrate less openness to foreign colleagues who represents the “alien” group (“intercultural negotiations”). Western negotiators note the decisive role of opinions made by delegation heads rather than experts. The fear of making mistakes and consequently the fear of punishment holds the Russians back from risky negotiating behavior and deviations from their instructions. The Russian negotiators are taken very seriously by their foreign colleagues. Nevertheless, some experts recommend that exaggerating the “threatening” and “overwhelming” power of the Russian partners should be avoided. They advise to be firm dealing with Russians, to strive to establish trust and good personal relations, and to prove reliability in their eyes for gaining benefits from negotiations.

Law as Anti-Kinship: The Colonial Present in Global Surrogacy

Law and regulation are often seen as the panacea for the ills of science and markets: regulation minimizes risks by setting out clear rules, calls out abuses when those rules are not obeyed, and disciplines actors, institutions, and states to behave according to collectively agreed upon principles. In this article I challenge this liberal narrative of regulation by looking at how cross-border surrogacy arrangements are currently debated in private international law. I first demonstrate that technosciences are intimately linked to regulatory and legal frameworks. Here, recombinant knowledge has led to new formations of legal parenthood while obscuring other forms of kinship in quite paradoxical ways. Second, the liberal story of law and regulation erodes the history and political economy in which law has come to represent itself as universal and moveable. I examine how a gendered, racialized, and (post)colonial context of global fertility chains is lost in the legal instruments designed to protect the people involved in international surrogacy arrangements, preferring instead neoliberal forms of kinship. Finally, the liberal story of law also embraces the story of individualism. I show the conflicts that arise when such individualist forms of law are transplanted to non-individualist contexts, both in non-Western and Western contexts. I argue that by subjecting non-liberal others (across the Global North-South divide) to bioethical frameworks that intervene in kinship ontologies, private international law runs the risk of prolonging the logic of colonial and imperial thinking.

Features of the political regime of Russia

The authoritarian political Regime of Russia determines aggressive behavior of this country in the foreign and domestic politics. Because of this the studding of this regime is actual both in theoretical and practical points of views. The main features of this regime in Russian reality stems from its hybrid nature and they are: authoritarian autocratic characteristics; but it is not the traditional authoritarianism the theory and practice of which we know from history. First of all, its specificity follows from the propaganda load of the regime and due to the control over the state media, the government achieves an information dictatorship; which is enough to form public opinion and reduce the need for repression: The second feature is the coexistence of democratic elements (limited pluralism, multi-party system, opposition television) with the totalitarian ones (coalescence of ruling party and the state, secret police, servile political culture). The third feature is the autocratic nature, the Putin-tailored constitution, the legislative acts which in Putin’s view are necessary. To study the Russian regime we use the theory .of cyclic development, according to which authoritarian cycles of political modernization are associated with geopolitical successes, and short term liberalization efforts, which always ended in failures, are associated with unsuccessful domestic and foreign policy. In all these cases initiatives always comes from the political elites and people plays a role of their supporters. Because of this researchers believe that civic society could not acquire subjectivity. In our view, political culture has a decisive influence on the political regime in Russia. The characteristics of Russian political culture are: faith of a powerful state and leader; Great Russian messianic chauvinism, which is the idea of Russian identity and part of the mentality of the people, as well as the ideas of social equality of sovereign democracy, subjective orientations and imperial thinking, which playa dominant role in the public consciousness. Therefore, those researchers and statesman who believe that chauvinism comes only from Putin are wrong. The main reason must be the imperial consciousness of the people. The article confirms the hypothesis that the natural development of Russia is authoritarian. It will take decades (in case of the desire of the authorities) to eradicate from the minds of citizens the elements of authoritarian culture, which for centuries have been fixed in their minds and passed from generation to generation.

Существовала ли «империя печенегов» в степях между Трансильванией и Нижним Доном?

The attempts by some researchers to present “The Pechenegia” mentioned by Konstantin Porphyrogenitus as a nomadic empire seem purely speculative. The Pechenegs were fragmented into separate tribes, which persisted for the entire period of their residence in the European steppes. They had neither supreme leader nor developed ethnic identity nor imperial thinking. They failed to organize a single devastating invasion by the joint military forces of all the tribes. Instead, their neighboring sovereigns used some of their militia as an auxiliary force to fight their opponents.

The Civilizing Mission Persists

AbstractU.S. government leaders have long considered Latin America their proverbial backyard and have recurrently intervened in the region. In earlier periods of U.S. imperialism, U.S. government leaders justified such intervention with reference to allegedly scientific racial hierarchies, which placed White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) at the top of this artificial hierarchy. In more recent episodes of U.S. imperialism leading into the twenty-first century, however, U.S. leaders have publicly used the language of democracy and human rights to justify intervention. In the instance of contemporary Venezuela, while U.S leaders indeed use the language of human rights and democracy, they also draw on racist tropes of Latin Americans to justify their intervention. Through interviews with U.S. foreign policymakers and analysis of U.S. government documents, I find that U.S. leaders depict former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as an irrational, uncivilized, and beastly leader, who manipulates ideas of racial inequality to maintain power. In addition, U.S. leaders understand him as manipulating an uncritical mass of Venezuelans who cannot think for themselves. U.S. leaders believe it thus their duty to intervene in order to promote democracy and show Venezuelans their true political-economic interests. I connect these dynamics with a history of U.S. intervention into the region and a history of racist and imperial thinking that continues to shape the logic of U.S. foreign policymaking into the present.

Imperial Thinking and Colonial Combat in the Early Twentieth-Century Italian Army

AbstractAlthough designed primarily as a national institution, between the 1880s and the First World War the Italian army's military operations were all in the colonial sphere. By 1914, Italy claimed an extensive empire in East and North Africa. How far did imperialism shape Italian military culture and institutions? I identify ‘imperial thinking’ across nine areas of army activity. Italian colonialism relied on a pervasive narrative of Italian benevolence – italiani brava gente – with Italian conduct in war or as imperial rulers portrayed as inherently mild. This was accompanied by a set of anxieties we might term Adwa syndrome: after Italy's defeat by Ethiopia at Adwa in 1896, the Italian army was acutely afraid of possible violent uprisings by the local people. Many army officers expected betrayal and brutality from their colonial enemies or subjects, and acted accordingly. This outlook shaped the army's conduct both in the colonies and when dealing with European adversaries in the First World War. While the army of late Liberal Italy was structurally and doctrinally a national army, it was increasingly imperialist in mindset and outlook, which directly affected its conduct on and off the battlefield.

Genre and Politics: The Concept of Empire in Joseph Brodsky's Work

The article analyses ideological and genre aspects of Joseph Brodsky's work, associated with the imperial theme in Russian literature. By drawing on methods from comparative literature, historical poetics, and empire studies I claim that a concern with space is not only central to Brodsky's work but also consistent with his imperial thinking. Brodsky's verse maintains a direct dialogue with Classicist poetry and Acmeist poetry (particularly Osip Mandelstam), both of which dealt with the notion of empire through adoption of the "high" literary style. The Imperial theme in Brodsky's oeuvre also overlaps with the dismantlement of the Russian imperial subject at the end of the Cold War. Against this backdrop, I argue that he was, above all, the last Russian imperial poet.

National minority: analysis of the genesis of legal status

Global trends and global transformations, caused by the demands of modern life, the intertwining of economic, social, political and many other factors, have led to the gradual integration of European countries, the formation of a global information field, the growing interdependence of "national" economies. The genesis of the rights of national minorities is a closed issue for the general public, a historical path, taken by national minorities in the direction of establishing a modern system of human rights protection and building a new international order that has not only theoretical, but also practical significance.At the same time, there are attempts to resist the processes of internationalization, autarky, recurrences of imperial thinking, nationalism and growing intolerance of members of the minority. Often, both at the household level and in the official political and legal doctrine, the wrong formula of ethnocentrism works, according to which it seems enough to "close borders" or "self-determine" to solve any problem, but life refutes these illusions, which is confirmed by the conclusions of the article.It is no coincidence, that legal science has not yet developed a generally accepted concept of "national minority", and often in official documents and scientific works, national minorities are not separated from other social groups (linguistic, religious, racial and others) and from the broader category of "minority". It is obvious, that the problem of scientific definition of this concept is determined by the complexity and multifaceted problems of building a democratic state, governed by the rule of law

Recognizing, reproducing and resisting West as method discourse: An analysis of senior secondary Asia-related history curriculum enactment

Across the world, history curriculum is often criticized for being ethnocentric or for privileging a nation’s preferred historical narratives through which it imagines itself and the world. It is also a site through which ethnocentric narratives can be resisted. Within these debates there tends to be little consideration of the influences on the curricular decision-making of the teachers who actually enact curriculum. After decades of critique of Asia education policy in Australia, assumptions are still made about the so-called Eurocentric ways teachers engage with Asia-related history curriculum. The research reported on in this article seeks to establish a more complex understanding of these curricular practices in order to make visible the dynamics that shape the discursive construction of “Asia” and the “West” in the context of senior secondary history in Victoria, Australia. This discourse analysis of interviews with Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) History teachers demonstrates the potential of Chen’s (2010) Asia as method as an innovative conceptual framework for analyzing how the West as method discourse gets recognized, reproduced and resisted in this context. It argues critical self-reflexivity is crucial for understanding the impact imperial thinking continues to have on subjectivity formation and for multiplying the reference points through which Asia, self and other are imagined by curriculum.

J.C. Byrne, Entrepreneurial Imperialism and the Question of Indigenous Rights

ABSTRACT This is a study of Joseph C. Byrne, an Irish entrepreneur who embarked on a number of colonial schemes and fashioned himself as an emigration expert. In 1848 he published Twelve Years’ Wanderings in the British Colonies. From 1835 to 1847, followed by a number of emigrant guides to the individual Australian colonies, the Cape of Good Hope and Port Natal. Descriptions of indigenous peoples proliferate throughout Byrne’s guides. While his texts were informed by his own travels, he also quoted liberally from official correspondence, newspapers, and other contemporary works. His accounts reflect both his own opinions, and also a broad spectrum of imperial attitudes and approaches towards Indigenous peoples. This article explores Byrne’s ideas of how Indigenous peoples might best serve the interest of British emigrants: that is how they might or might not be made ‘useful’ to British subjects, and also, in some cases, how their inevitable demise would provide ‘peculiar advantages to emigrants’. His accounts of Indigenous people illustrate the problems posed by the ‘native question’ in imperial thinking, and the way in which Britain grappled to envisage the future place of indigenous people within its colonies in the face of growing settler demands for land.

Ivan Mazepa’s personality as a cultural symbol: historicalperforming aspects

Ivan Mazepa’s personality as a cultural symbol: historicalperforming aspects

ІМПЕРІЯ ЯК ІСТОРИКО-ГЕОПОЛІТИЧНИЙ ФЕНОМЕН

There have been few researches recently in Ukraine investigating empires as a political phenomenon. The beginning of the XX century showed that empires were in the past, yet in the previous century, for the following empires collapsed: British, French, Prussian, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman, Japanese. However, the issue of empires is not closed, has not been taken off the political agenda.The notion of empire was not yet investigated in the XIX century, and in the XX the scientists introduced such terms as imperial thinking, imperial ambitions, and imperial traditions. However, the content of the notion "empire" was not investigated or had a demonized meaning with a destructive sense.The research and analysis of empires had a serious theoretical significance for the objective perception of history, modernity, and development perspectives of international relations system.Although it must be emphasized that European countries actually claim to form their own organizational type of state. So, recently, quite often, researchers and politicians have expressed different assessments regarding the prospect of the development of forms of state-territorial organization of European countries. What is the future of the European Union? In decentralization and separation of states in the further integration of cultural and economic space? Is it possible for the united Europe to coexist within the confederacy or federal structure? Price issue concerns not only the EU, but also its territorial organization and, most importantly, the future format of the state. In this regard, the question arises: the prospects of the European alliance - the consolidation of the federation, the confederation of countries, and perhaps the future version of the renewed type of "soft" empire?We examined the separate principles and aspects of the imperial system. Empires existed in different ages, in different political and cultural environments. All empires were characterized by different models of colonization and space exploration. Different empires perceived their regions with their autochthonous population. However, in many respects the imperial dominant remained similar. This allows us to assume that the ethnic groups can perceive the imperial order at least if it is adapted to its ethno-social and ethnosciological peculiarities, and therefore, in our opinion, it will be incorrect to recall the empire-state only in the past.