Nationalism, Myth, and the State in Russia and Serbia ：Antecedents of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia

Publication subTitle ：Antecedents of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia

Author： Veljko Vujačić;

Publisher： Cambridge University Press‎

Publication year： 2015

E-ISBN: 9781316915172

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9781107074088

P-ISBN(Hardback): 9781107074088

Subject： D5 World Politics

Keyword：世界政治

Language： ENG

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Description

This book examines the role of Russian and Serbian nationalism in dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991. This book examines the role of Russian and Serbian nationalism in different modes of dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991. Veljko Vujačić highlights the role of historical legacies, national myths, collective memories, and literary narratives in shaping diametrically opposed attitudes toward the state in Russia and Serbia. This book examines the role of Russian and Serbian nationalism in different modes of dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991. Veljko Vujačić highlights the role of historical legacies, national myths, collective memories, and literary narratives in shaping diametrically opposed attitudes toward the state in Russia and Serbia. This book examines the role of Russian and Serbian nationalism in different modes of dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991. Why did Russia's elites agree to the dissolution of the Soviet Union along the borders of Soviet republics, leaving twenty-five million Russians outside of Russia? Conversely, why did Serbia's elite succeed in mobilizing Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia for the nationalist cause? Combining a Weberian emphasis on interpretive understanding and counterfactual analysis with theories of nationalism, Veljko Vujačić highlights the role of historical legacies, national myths, collective memories, and literary narratives in shaping diametrically opposed attitudes toward the state in Russia and Serbia. The emphasis on the unintended consequences of communist nationality policy highlights how these attitudes interacted with institutional factors, favoring different outcomes in 1991. The book's postscript examines how this explanation holds up in the light of Russia's annexation of Crimea. Introduction; 1. Russians and Serbs in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia: grounds for comparison and alternative explanations; 2. States, nations, and nationalism: a Weberian view; 3. Empire, state, and nation in Russia and Serbia; 4. Communism and nationalism: Russians and Serbs in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia; 5. The nation as a community of shared memories and common political destiny: Russians and Serbs in literary narratives; Conclusion; Postscript. 'In this much-needed study, Veljko Vujačić takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the comparative history of Serbia and Russia for the purpose of understanding the violent collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s as counterposed to the relatively peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union. Along the way, he explores the theoretical contributions of Max Weber and other historical sociologists to understanding nationalism and its reliance on mythopoetic historical memory. An intriguing postscript about the Russian annexation of Crimea concludes this altogether highly illuminating and carefully argued book.' Norman Naimark, Stanford University 'Veljko Vujačić's deeply learned and lucidly argued study of the long-term legacies of nation- and state-formation in Russia and Serbia is a model of Weberian comparative historical sociology.' Rogers Brubaker, University of California, Los Angeles 'Totally contrary to the leader-focused explanation common in the early 1990s of why the Soviet Union disintegrated peacefully and Yugoslavia did not - Yeltsin versus Milosevic - this fascinating, richly documented, and utterly creative use of this paradox insists instead on t

Chapter

A Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1 Russians and Serbs in the Dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia

I. Communist Nationality Policy in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia

II. Contentious Events, Political Processes, and the Puzzle of Different Outcomes

III. Explanations of Different Outcomes in Russia and Serbia

IV. Methodological Considerations

2 States, Nations, and Nationalism

I. Max Weber on Nations, Nationalism, and Imperialism

II. Ethnic Mythomoteurs and the Emotional Appeal of Nationalism

III. Relative Backwardness, Intellectual Mobilization, and Ressentiment: The Diffusion...

IV. Civic, Ethnic, and State Definitions of the Nation

Conclusion

3 Empire, State, and Nation in Russia and Serbia

Part I. RossIia or Holy Rus’?: State and Nation in Imperial Russia

I. Imperial Patrimonialism and the Image of Dual Russia

II. Nationalism against the State: From Holy Russia to Narod

III. Imperial, Ethnic, and Civic Nationalism: Three Responses to the State-Society Gulf in Late Imperial Russia

Part II. Serbia: Nation-Building as Heroic Epos

I. Serbs in the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires

II. The Story of Kosovo: The Emergence of the Serbian National Myth

III. Prince or People? Relative Backwardness, Intellectual Mobilization, and...

IV. Precious Martyrs on the Altar of Church and Nation: The Apogee of Nation-Building in Serbia

Conclusion: Comparing Legacies of State- and Nation-Building in Russia and Serbia

4 Communism and Nationalism

Part I. From Bolshevik Rus’ to Sovetskaia Rossiia

I. The October Revolution and Russian Nationalism

II. Leninist Nationalist Policy: The Struggle against Great Russian Chauvinism

III. Proletarian against Peasant: Socialism in One Country and the Birth of Soviet-Russian Identity

IV. Stalin’s Soviet-Russian Autocracy and the Great Patriotic War

V. The Stalinist Legacy and the Russian Nation

Part II. Between Nation and State: Serbia and Serbs in the Yugoslav State

I. Serbia, Croatia, and Yugoslavism Prior to Unification

II. Serbs and Serbia in Interwar Yugoslavia

III. Ethnic Nationalism in the Yugoslav Civil War

IV. Partisan Heroes on the Altar of the Fatherland: From the Attack...

V. Communist Federalism and the Serbian National Question

5 The Nation as a Community of Shared Memories and Common Political Destiny

I. The Thaw in Russian Literature: Nation and Individual as Victims of the State

II. The Futility of Collective Sacrifice? Serbs as Victims of Yugoslavist Illusions

Conclusion

Postscript

Appendix

Tables

Index

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