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Writing Russianness, Greatness and Europe in the 1960s

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Russian-European Relations in the Balkans and Black Sea Region

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Abstract

In this chapter, I conduct a discourse analysis of two groups of texts, which were instrumental in shaping the mind-set of the current generation of Russian policy-makers in their teen-age years. First, I analyse history and school textbooks, which were obligatory reading in the 1950s–1960s. Second, I look at the most popular and heavily understudied writer of historical fiction novels, Valentin Pikul. I show the unprecedented influence this writer had on the Russian political and military elite. My analysis shows that, apart from False and True archetypes, the Russian-European web of identities featured two more European Others, which entailed a broader variety of mixed policy options. I also highlight the unique role that the Black Sea region and the Balkans play in the Russia’s great power identity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Discussion with the Member of Civil Chamber of Russia Igor Svanidze, “Osoboye Mnenie”, 21 December 2004, Echo of Moscow radio station, available at: http://echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/33614/. See e.g. A. Pankratova (ed.), Istoria SSSR: Chast Pervaya: Uchebnik dlia 8-ogo klassa sredney shkoly (History of the USSR: Part I: Textbook for the 8th grade of secondary school), (Moscow: Uchpedgis, 1947); A. Pankratova (ed.) Istoria SSSR: Chast Vtoraya: Uchebnik dlia 9-ogo klassa sredney shkoly (History of the USSR: Part II: Textbook for the 9th grade of secondary school), (Moscow: Uchpedgis, 1958); A. Pankratova (ed.) Istoria SSSR: Chast Tretia: Uchebnik dlia 10-ogo klassa sredney shkoly (History of the USSR: Part III: Textbook for the 10th grade of secondary school), (Moscow: Uchpedgis, 1954).

  2. 2.

    S. Soloviev, Istoria Rossii s Drevneishikh Vremen: V Piatnadtsati Knigakh (Moscow: Izd-vo Sotsialno-Ekonomicheskoy Literatury, 1959), 164.

  3. 3.

    It should also be noted that the faculties of histories were the primary faculties where the experts in the spheres of humanities were trained. There were no schools/ faculties/ departments of political science/sociology/anthropology, and so on. A few area studies and international relations institutes in the Soviet education system, mostly based in Moscow, were also dominated by this approach.

  4. 4.

    L. Aron, Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong, Foreign Policy Magazine, 20 June 2011, http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/20/everything-you-think-you-know-about-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-is-wrong/, accessed 10 May 2015; M. R. Beissinger, Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 381; P. Krugman, Capitalism’s Mysterious Triumph, available at: http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/Russia.htm; last accessed 10 May 2015; L. T. Lih, The Soviet Union and the road to communism, in R. G. Sunny, The Cambridge History of Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 731.

  5. 5.

    N. Kiniapina et al., Kavkaz i Srednyaya Aziya vo Vneshnei Politike Rossii: Vtoraya Polovina XVII – 80-e gody XIX v. (Moscow, 1984), as quoted in E. Thompson, Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000), 53.

  6. 6.

    Czargrad and Tsargrad is a historic Slavic name for the city of Constantinople. Oleg made several raids and conquered the Byzantine capital.

  7. 7.

    R. Stites, Russian Popular Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, repr. 1995), 151.

  8. 8.

    Letopis Mira, last modified 21 May 2003, http://www.russika.ru/ctatjajv.asp?index=31&pr=3.

  9. 9.

    N. Ivanova, “A New Mosaic out of Old Fragments: Soviet History Re-Codified in Modern Russian Prose” in G. Freidn (ed), Russia at the End of the Twentieth Century: Culture and its Horizons in Politics and Society (Stanford: Stanford University, 2000), 25–26. Available at: http://web.stanford.edu/group/Russia20/volumepdf/ivanova.pdf, accessed 1 October 2015.

  10. 10.

    V. Pikul, Bayazet (Moscow: ACT, Veche, 2004).

  11. 11.

    See e.g. C. King, The Black Sea: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); S. Blank, “Russia and the Black Sea’s Frozen Conflicts in Strategic Perspective”, Mediterranean Quarterly, 19, 3 (2008): 23–54; A. Dubien, J. Vaquer I Fanes, “Security and Energy Security in the Black Sea Region”, Standard Briefing (Brussels: European Parliament Directorate General for External Policies of the Union, Directorate B, Policy Department, 2010).

  12. 12.

    T. Hopf (2002), 55.

  13. 13.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 4, 6, 7, 9–10, 12–13; E. Zhukov (1955), vol. 1, 4, 26–27.

  14. 14.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 17–21; E. Zhukov (1956), vol. 2, 70–71.

  15. 15.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 15.

  16. 16.

    V. Potemkin (1941), 25.

  17. 17.

    S. Soloviev (1959), 61; see also 74, 84, 90.

  18. 18.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 22–27.

  19. 19.

    Ibid ., 23–25.

  20. 20.

    Ibid ., 43. The same script is reproduced in the sections on the medieval diplomacy of the Russian Princes by V. Potemkin (1941), 120–121 and S. Soloviev (1959), 181–185.

  21. 21.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 127–129, 131, 133–139; S. Soloviev (1960), vol. 3, 391; E. Zhukov (1957), vol. 3, 793.

  22. 22.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 126.

  23. 23.

    V. Pikul, Bayazet (Moscow: ACT, Veche, 2004).

  24. 24.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 94.

  25. 25.

    A. Pankratova (1954), 12–19, 32–33, 35, 39, 41–45, 55, 57, 62–63, 69. It is noticeable that big strikes in other provinces of Russia receive much less attention.

  26. 26.

    A. Pankratova (ed.), Istoria SSSR: ChastPervaya: Uchebnikdlia 8-ogo klassasredneyshkoly (History of the USSR: Part I: Textbook for the 8th grade of secondary school), (Moscow: Uchpedgis, 1947), 1–4.

  27. 27.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 38.

  28. 28.

    S. Soloviev (1959), 58, 130; V. Potemkin (1941), 111.

  29. 29.

    T. Hopf (2002), 83.

  30. 30.

    University textbooks use the term “power” with reference to the ancient states that had strong military organisation and expanded at the expense of other countries, such as the power of Schumer and Akkad, Babylon, Chet and Assyrian, Egypt’s military power, Persian military power, the power of Colonial Carthage, the power of Genghis-Khan, Mogul or Moravian power. See E. Zhukov (ed.), Vsemirnaya Istoria v Desiati Tomakh (World History in Ten Volumes), vol. 1, (Moscow: Akademiya Nauk SSSR, 1955), 211–212, 215, 216, 219, 227, 258, 274, 289, 290, 313, 316, 319–320, 324–325, 326, 331, 343, 345, 348, 353, 356, 366, 369–373, 378–383, 386, 389, 393–399, 475, 484, 493, 496–497, 502–512, 534–557, 572, 574; S. Soloviev (1959), 191.

  31. 31.

    I. Neumann, “Russia’s Standing as a Great Power, 1494–1815”, in T. Hopf (ed.), Russia’s European Choice (Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan, 2008), 14, 24–25.

  32. 32.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 22, 36; E. Zhukov (1958), vol. 5.

  33. 33.

    E. Zhukov (1958), vol. 5, 383.

  34. 34.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 6.

  35. 35.

    E. Zhukov (1958), vol. 5, 208–209, 379.

  36. 36.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 58.

  37. 37.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 79–84.

  38. 38.

    S. Soloviev (1959), 199.

  39. 39.

    A long description of decentralisation: A. Pankratova (1947), 55–70.

  40. 40.

    For a long quotation of the correspondence Peter the Great received from the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople with a detailed description of European envoys bribing the Sultan and Tatars to conspire against Russia see e.g. S. Soloviev (1962), vol. 5, 525–530.

  41. 41.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 9.

  42. 42.

    E. Zhukov (1960), vol. 7, 173–175.

  43. 43.

    The phrase “Russia is concentrating” was used by the Russian Foreign Minister and Chancellor A. Gorchakov. It refers to the period of reflection, regrouping, and consolidation after the humiliating defeat of Russia after the Crimean War. On the phrase and its significance in Russian history see e.g. M. Smith,Power in the Changing Global Order: The US, Russia and China, Cambridge: Polity, 2012, p. 219; “Russia is Concentrating!”, Policy Brief of the Foundation for Strategic Culture, 6 September 2006, available at: http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2006/09/06/5593.html; accessed 10 June 2013.

  44. 44.

    A. Pankratova (1954), 102.

  45. 45.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 41–43; S. Soloviev (1959), 167–169, 181–185. The same script is reproduced in the chapters about the medieval diplomacy of the Russian Princes by V. Potemkin (1941), 120–121.

  46. 46.

    E. Zhukov (1958), vol. 5, p. 380; A. Pankratova (1958), 55.

  47. 47.

    In fact, several volumes of Soloviev’s narrations about the reign of Catherine the Great are devoted to the description of the Balkan affairs: S. Soloviev (1965), vol. 14, 277–611.

  48. 48.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 58, 108.

  49. 49.

    Ibid ., 98, 108.

  50. 50.

    Ibid ., 174–175.

  51. 51.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 137; E. Zhukov (1957), vol. 3, 786–790. It should be noted that although in Soloviev’s work the Russian expansion is described in a more balanced way, the question of the South remains more pronounced in the description of the raids by Crimean Tatars and the question of Turkey in Russian internal affairs. See. e.g. S. Soloviev (1960), vol. 3, 421–522.

  52. 52.

    A. Pankratova (1954), 369.

  53. 53.

    I. Berkhin, Istoria SSSR (History of the USSR), Moscow: VysshayaShkola, 1966, p. 421. As the number of the hero-cities grew to twelve, two more Black Sea ports, Kerch and Novorossiysk, were included in the list in 1975. During the same period, the Communist Yugoslav government awarded the National Hero Order to eight major cities of the country.

  54. 54.

    A. Pankratova (1954), 383–385.

  55. 55.

    Neumann (1996), 26.

  56. 56.

    S. White, V. Feklyunina, Identities and Foreign Policies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: The Other Europes, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014.

  57. 57.

    I. Neumann, Uses Of The Other: “The East” in European Identity Formation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998, 88–89.

  58. 58.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 58, 63.

  59. 59.

    Ibid ., 68–69.

  60. 60.

    Coincidently, Captain Nekrasov is the name mate of Nikolay Nekrasov—the Russian writer, critic, and publisher, famous for his deeply compassionate poems about a peasant Russia.

  61. 61.

    T. Hopf (2003), 41–42.

  62. 62.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 100. It should be stressed that some countries of Europe were linked to the concept of False Europe (represented by stupid, greedy, snobbish, militant aristocracy, corrupt Austro-Hungary or Prussia), perfidious Europe—Britain, Austria, France, whereas the countries like Switzerland, Spain, and Italy received positive mention in the textbook as objects of colonial policies of European powers. Sweden is positioned as aggressive Europe, but since after the Northern War there were only three very short wars with Sweden, this representation—Sweden as aggressive Europevis not that strong.

  63. 63.

    E. Zhukov (1959), vol. 6, 92–93.

  64. 64.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 105; E. Zhukov, Ibid. , 92–93.

  65. 65.

    Peko Pavlović was a military leader of Montenegro during their fight against Turkey in the late nineteenth century.

  66. 66.

    Lyuben Stoychev Karavelov and Petko Karavelov are prominent public figures related to the restoration of the Bulgarian state in the late nineteenth century.

  67. 67.

    General M. Lyubibratic is a leader of the Slav insurgency in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  68. 68.

    Hristo Botev is a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary.

  69. 69.

    Paraphrase of the famous Pushkin quotation: “Kievan Prince Oleg allegedly conquered Constantinople and nailed his shield onto the gate of the city”.

  70. 70.

    V. Pikul (2004), 24.

  71. 71.

    Ibid ., 20.

  72. 72.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 94.

  73. 73.

    Ibid ., 94, 152.

  74. 74.

    V. Pikul (2004), 77–78.

  75. 75.

    Ibid ., 41.

  76. 76.

    Ibid ., 213.

  77. 77.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 58, 63; (1947), 155.

  78. 78.

    Ibid ., 8.

  79. 79.

    Ibid ., 68–69.

  80. 80.

    E. Zhukov (1958), vol. 5, 215.

  81. 81.

    E. Zhukov (1962), vol. 9, 501, 513.

  82. 82.

    V. Pikul (2004), 264.

  83. 83.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 175.

  84. 84.

    A. Pankratova (1947), 187–198.

  85. 85.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 97.

  86. 86.

    V. Pikul (2004), 9, 32, 47, 64, 85, 90, 143, 202, 212, 250, 264, 265, 276.

  87. 87.

    Ibid ., 251.

  88. 88.

    E. Zhukov(1959), vol. 6, 101–102.

  89. 89.

    V. Pikul (2004), 143.

  90. 90.

    Ibid ., 143.

  91. 91.

    S. Soloviev (1960), 441–448; A. Pankratova (1947), 142.

  92. 92.

    E. Zhukov (1959), vol. 6, 84.

  93. 93.

    A. Pankratova (1954), 106–108.

  94. 94.

    Ibid ., 116.

  95. 95.

    T. Hopf (2003), 46.

  96. 96.

    A. Pankratova (1958), 100.

  97. 97.

    Ibid ., 94.

  98. 98.

    L. Hansen (2006).

  99. 99.

    E. Zhukov (1960), vol. 7, 221, 484; (1961), vol. 8, 184; E. Zhukov (1962), vol. 9, 163.

  100. 100.

    E. Zhukov (1960), vol. 7, 38, 221, 267, 486, 499; (1961), vol. 8, 184, 472; (1962), vol. 9, 329.

  101. 101.

    Russian Generals commanding the Russian troops in the Balkans.

  102. 102.

    V. Pikul (2004), 266.

  103. 103.

    Ibid ., 165.

  104. 104.

    Ibid ., 143.

  105. 105.

    Ibid ., 266.

Bibliography

  • Hansen, L., Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War, New York: Routledge, 2006.

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  • Pikul, V., Bayazet, Moscow: ACT, Veche, 2004 [eBook].

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  1. Department of Political Science, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium

    Dr. Vsevolod Samokhvalov

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Samokhvalov, V. (2017). Writing Russianness, Greatness and Europe in the 1960s. In: Russian-European Relations in the Balkans and Black Sea Region. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52078-0_3

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