SUMMARY:

The article focuses on the question of our knowledge about the Homo Imperii in the light of newer research on biographical and autobiographical traditions in Russian history. Starting with the Early Modern History, it presents a survey of English, German and Russian publications on the theme, with its main focus on recent German debates about (auto)biography in Russia and the Soviet Union. The aim of the article is a twofold one: On the one hand to show the long and multifaceted tradition of describing the Self in Russian History, and by this means to adjust the widespread Western approach to Russia as a society based only on collective self-concepts. And on the other hand to raise the question to which extent the imperial dimension of the subject in Russian history was reflected by research so far? Regarding this point, the article comes to the conclusion that there exists a vast literature on Russian (auto)biography with a growing intensive exchange between Russian and Western European debates – but the imperial context was rather neglected so far. In contrast to that, the article argues for a greater significance of (auto)biographical perspectives on the empire in future research – the look through the prism of an individual’s life can widen our knowledge about the Homo Imperii.