{"id":59769,"date":"2023-12-18T22:37:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/?p=59769"},"modified":"2023-12-19T13:13:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T12:13:47","slug":"long-history-of-russian-imperialism-fuecks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/long-history-of-russian-imperialism-fuecks\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long History of Russian Imperialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Vladimir Putin\u2019s brutal attack on Ukraine has changed Germany\u2019s perspective of Russia by highlighting the country\u2019s imperi\u00adalism and Ukraine\u2019s central role as the empire\u2019s crown jewel.<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

Talking about the history of Russian imperi\u00adalism marks a change of perspective in the German debate. Until the open war of conquest against Ukraine, the term \u201ccolonialism\u201d was almost exclu\u00adsively applied to the Western powers that had subju\u00adgated large parts of the globe since the 16th century.<\/p>

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

Ralf F\u00fccks<\/a> is managing director of the Center for Liberal Modernity.<\/p><\/div>\n

The term \u201cimperi\u00adalism\u201d was also used almost exclu\u00adsively to charac\u00adterize the West. In the left, \u201cimperi\u00adalism\u201d was largely synonymous with \u201cUS imperi\u00adalism\u201d, while the Soviet Union (as well as China) was perceived as an \u201canti-imperi\u00adalist power\u201d. Strangely enough, the fact that the Soviet government crushed all aspira\u00adtions for freedom within its own sphere of influence was not perceived as a manifes\u00adtation of imperial power.<\/p>\n

The invasion of Ukraine has changed the view of Russia. Almost overnight, the long tradition of Russian imperi\u00adalism became visible \u2013 and with it the key role of Ukraine as the crown jewel of the Russian empire. Even German Chancellor Olaf Scholz now sometimes speaks about Russian \u201cneo-imperi\u00adalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s obsession with Ukraine is not a personal whim. Ukraine has been the object of Russian desire for centuries \u2013 as a mytho\u00adlogical cradle of Russian statehood, as a bread\u00adbasket of Europe, as a gateway to Central Europe and later also as an indus\u00adtrial center for the Soviet Union. Under Stalin, too, dominion over Ukraine was a central imper\u00adative for securing Soviet power. The Holodomor was a weapon to break the backbone of the Ukrainian nation.<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s treatise \u201cOn the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians\u201d from July 2021 openly denies Ukraine\u2019s existence as an independent nation. The text is an undis\u00adguised threat that the Kremlin will not tolerate Ukraine leaving the Russian orbit and becoming part of the Western world. There were enough voices that under\u00adstood this as ideological decla\u00adration of war \u2014 unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, almost nobody in Berlin and other Western capitals wanted to hear them.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Colonial Expansion<\/h2>\n

Russia\u2019s colonial expansion spanned eight centuries. It was no less belligerent and cruel than that of the Western colonial powers. Never\u00adtheless, there are signif\u00adicant charac\u00adter\u00adistics. The Russian empire was conti\u00adnental, its enlargement was an expansion of a terri\u00adtorial continuum. It went hand in hand with settler colonialism, installed Russian elites in the conquered terri\u00adtories and forced local elites to choose between assim\u00adi\u00adlation or annihilation.<\/p>\n

Judging from its terri\u00adtorial expansion and duration, the Russian Empire was the most successful of all empires of the modern age. At its peak, it extended over one sixth of the earth\u2019s land mass. More than 130 languages were spoken within the borders of the Tsarist Empire; it included Chris\u00adtians of various denom\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtions, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews (at the end of the 19th century, around two thirds of all Jews lived in the Russian Empire) and followers of animistic natural religions.<\/p>\n

This sounds like a multi\u00adcul\u00adtural idyll, but it conceals a policy of Russi\u00adfi\u00adcation aimed at eradi\u00adcating the cultural identity of national minorities, whose language and culture were marginalized.<\/p>\n

From the Soviet Union to Putin\u2019s neo-imperialism<\/h2>\n

When Russia became the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik leadership drew on imperial tradi\u00adtions. It did every\u00adthing in its power to reconquer the republics that had fallen away at the end of the First World War. This phase of imperial restoration only ended with the failed march on Warsaw.<\/p>\n

The next stage was the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939, which led to the occupation of eastern Poland, western Belarus, western Ukraine and Bessarabia as well as the annex\u00adation of the three Baltic states in 1940. The attempt to force Finland back \u201chome to the Reich\u201d also failed in the Winter War of 1939\/\u200b40.<\/p>\n

After the end of the Second World War, a new form of imperial expansion began: the estab\u00adlishment of puppet republics in Central and Eastern Europe, including Eastern Germany. In form they were friendly states, but in fact they were controlled by Moscow. Only the Soviet Union was sovereign; all others were subject to the doctrine of \u201climited sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n

The subju\u00adgated nations\u2019 striving for self-deter\u00admi\u00adnation was the strongest driving force behind the collapse of the empire and the disso\u00adlution of the USSR between 1989 and 1991.<\/p>\n

Putin described the fall of the Soviet Union early on as the \u201cgreatest geopo\u00adlitical catastrophe of the 20th century\u201d. In his eyes, the Russian nation is scattered across the entire post-Soviet space and must be reunited. The core of the empire is formed by the holy trinity of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.<\/p>\n

The military inter\u00advention in Georgia in 2008 was already a demon\u00adstration of the new claim to power. It was preceded by two brutal campaigns in Chechnya, in which tens of thousands of civilians lost their lives and the capital Grozny was almost completely devas\u00adtated \u2014 a drastic message that Moscow will not tolerate any further national secessions.<\/p>\n

The trans\u00adfor\u00admation of the Soviet empire came to a halt halfway through the 1990s. When Putin came to power, a threefold restoration developed: from stalled democ\u00adra\u00adti\u00adzation to author\u00adi\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adanism, from market-economy reforms back to a state-run economy and from a post-imperial Russia oriented towards the West to a neo-imperial policy.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s imperial mindset must fail in Ukraine<\/h2>\n

It is hardly an exagger\u00adation to say that Russia\u2019s future will be decided in Ukraine. The departure from empire will not be voluntary, even less so than in the European democ\u00adracies. Conversely, there is no stronger lever for Russia\u2019s internal trans\u00adfor\u00admation than a democ\u00adratic, econom\u00adi\u00adcally prosperous Ukraine that is integrated into the Western community.<\/p>\n

We should therefore do every\u00adthing to ensure that Russian imperi\u00adalism fails in Ukraine. As long as Russia clings to imperial nostalgia, there will be neither a turning away from author\u00adi\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adanism nor any sustainable peace in Europe.<\/p>\n

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This text is based on a lecture held at the University of Kassel on 25 May 2022. The German original is published here<\/a>.
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