SUMMARY:

Ricarda Vulpius, Mikhail Dolbilov, and Darius Staliunas, contributors to the forum “Alphabets, Language, and National Identity in the Russian Empire” (AI 2/2005), returned to one of the issues that emerged out of this forum – the problem of the relationship between the analytical concepts used by historians of Imperial Russia and non-Russian nationalisms, and the original political and cultural language of historical actors. Here, they explicate their understanding of such analytical constructs as the “Greater Russian nation,” and the meaning of such terms as “Maloross,” “narod,” “Ukrainophile,” or “Russophile,” in their specific historical contexts. AI sees this very interesting exchange as a beginning and as a good example of the larger discussion on “languages of self description”, and of their subjects, objects, and corresponding imperial and national contexts. The clarification of the key terms and concepts used by scholars and the objects of their study is the first and absolutely necessary stage of such a discussion.