SUMMARY:

In his article Ronald Suny scrutinizes theories of empire and nationalism and applies them for understanding the pitfalls of development of Russian national identity and nationbuilding. In the theoretical part of the article Suny warns the reader that the analytical framework of empire may carry value laden judgment informed by the contemporary and opposite to empire discourse of nation. He elaborates the ideal types of empire and nation as different principles of organization of political relations, that of hierarchy, subordination, and exploitation in empires and egalitarian citizenship, democratic participation, and cultural homogeneity of nations. Interested in issues of empire’s survival, decay, and collapse, Suny maintains that the imperial dynamics was tied to the change of discourse of political legitimacy associated with the development of nationalism in Western Europe and its impact on practices of both overseas colonial and contiguous empires. The Russian empire is considered as part of the general trend and period of European and universal history and is set in the comparative context of different time zones of transformation of imperial political relations under the impact of nationalism. Suny indicates a greater tenacity of empire in Central European and Eurasian region, demonstrating that the conflict between the imperial and national discourses of legitimacy contributed to the uneven, contradictory and contested development of Russian national identity. Criticizing a view of inevitable collapse of any empire, he suggests a historically grounded explanation of imperial crisis in Russia, accounting for both the persistence of imperial tradition and creative adaptation of the Russian empire to the challenges of modernity and nationalism.