Matthew T. Taiwo

Dept. of European Languages & Integrated Studies, University of Lagos, Nigeria

DOI : https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v8-i2-32

Google Scholar Download Pdf
ABSTRACT

Russian history from the Tsarist period, through the Soviet regime and down to the post-Soviet time has been inundated with Russia’s determined nationalistic moves that seek to control a vast territory of diverse peoples or reconstruct sovereign entities under its influence. The Russian nationalistic traits have popularly been treated as an affront to sovereignty integrity and disruption of the world order. The models of Russian nationalism have drawn interests of many researchers among whom have suggested that Russian nationalistic principle, particularly, in the contemporary time is archaic and irrational. This paper was undertaken to examine Russia’s nationalism principle with a view to understanding its course of movements and the reasons for the incurable nationalistic actions. The paper is qualitative, adopted irredentist perspective as its theoretical framework, and employed historical approach as a method of analysis. This paper suggested that what determines the trends of Russian nationalism goes beyond ethnic concerns, Russian anxiety for territorial security is also a prime factor.

KEYWORDS:

Nationalism, Imperial Russia, Soviet era, Putinist, statehood

REFERENCES
1) Baird, I. G. (2015). Irredentism.

2) Blackburn, M. 2021. Mainstream Russian nationalism and the “State-Civilisation Identity”: perspectives from below. National papers, 49 (1), pp.89-107, Uppsala University, Sweden.

3) Brian, C. (1974). A map history of Russia. Heinemann.

4) Guerman, D & Chugrov, S. (2000). “The West” in Russian Mentality. Brussels Institute of World Economy and International Relations, pp.1-41. https://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/98-00/diliguenski.pdf.

5) Halbach, U. (2012). Vladimir Putin’s Eurasian Union: a new integration project for the CIS region. German Institute for International and Security Affairs, pp.1-4.

6) Hale, C. & Siroky, D. (2022). Irredentism and Institution. Journal of Political Science, 53, 489-315.

7) Kolsto, P.and Blakkisrud, H. (2016). Eds. The new Russian nationalism: imperialism, ethnicity, and authoritarianism, 2000-15. Edinburgh University Press ltd.

8) Kozhemiakin, A. V. & Kanet, R. E. (1998). The Impact of Nationalism on Foreign Policy. In Post-Communist States in the World, pp.46-61. Palgrave Macmillan.

9) Krasnodębska, M. (2021). Confrontation as Ontological Security: Russia’s Reactions to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. In Cross, M. K. D. & Karolewski, I. P. (Eds.), European-Russian Power Relations in Turbulent Times (pp. 135–159). University of Michigan Press.

10) Laquer, W. (1992). Russian Nationalism. Foreign Affairs, 71 (5), pp.103-116. Council of Foreign Relations.

11) LIparteliani, V. (2020). Russia’s use of the Orthodox Church as a tool of influence. Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs, 8 (1), pp. 1-4.

12) Odunuga, S. (1998). East European revolution and Nigeria’s diplomacy. Nigeria: Stirling-Horden Publishers.

13) Rogoza, J. (2014). Russian Nationalism: Between Imperial and Xenophobia. European View, 13 (1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12290-014-0295-5.

14) Rowley, D. G. (2000). Imperial versus national discourse: the case of Russia-Nation and nationalism. 6 (1), pp. 23- 42.

15) Rumer, E. B. (1995). Russian National Security and Foreign Policy in Transition. RAND, pp. 1-57. Project Airforce.

16) Sergei, F. J. (2022). Russian Nationalism. Gill, G (Ed.), Routledge handbook of Russia politics and society, pp. 437-448. Routledge.

17) Simao, L. (2016). The Ukrainian conflict in Russian foreign policy: rethinking the interconnections between domestic and foreign policy strategies 27 (3), pp. 491-511. Routledge.

18) Stein, A. A. (2001). Realism/Neorealism. In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, ( Ed.), Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. New York: Pergamon Press, vol.19, pp. 12812–12815.

19) Wesseling, H. (1997). Imperialism: Political Aspects. https://quote.ucsd.edu/files/IESBS-2001

Volume 08 Issue 02 February 2025