On Some Regularities of the Transformation of the Civilizational Idea in Modern Russia

The paper analyzes the changes in the content of the civilizational idea in modern Russia. It is shown that the substantive changes concern both the traditional fluctuations between the orientation to the European and Eurasian development path, and the emergence of new features, in particular related to environmental and economic issues. At the same time, there is a reconfiguration of the civilizational idea regarding economic and political discourses. There is a fusion of civilizational identity with political identity, which manifests itself in the form of active use of national-state resources for the formation of national-civilizational identity. It is concluded that at the state level, civilizational identity is supported by political and economic discourses, and the Russian-Eurasian discourse itself is being transformed, turning from a discourse about the integration of cultures into a discourse about the integration of economies based on the integration of cultures.

Reflections on Oppression, Domination, and The Humble Cosmopolitan

This brief response to The Humble Cosmopolitan centers on Luis Cabrera’s defense of an individualistic conception of trans-state democracy against illiberal nationalist claims of self-determination. While I acknowledge the force of Cabrera’s critique as applied to “dominant” nationalisms and similar group-based dominations, I am curious as to how far Cabrera’s critique can accommodate “subaltern” nationalisms and related claims to group autonomy. The latter, I imply, can be defended on both instrumental and intrinsic grounds. Regarding the book’s analytic framework, I am curious as to how far Cabrera’s concepts of cosmopolitan humility and national-state arrogance can be reduced to concepts of global and national justice and injustice. The latter terms, I suggest, are at least partial substitutes for the former.

Peremyshl center of the ukrainian national revival in the early ХІХ-th century in reference publications

The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of illuminate in reference and bibliographic publicationsof the first educational associations of the Ukrainian national revival in Przemyśl at the beginning of the XIXcentury. Methodology: during the writing of the work the principles of historicism, objectivity, systematics,and comprehensiveness were applied, as well as – general methods of scientific research – analysis, synthesis,comparison. Scientific novelty: for the first time the coverage in the reference literature of church andsecular cultural and educational associations in Przemyśl at the beginning of the XIX century is considered.Conclusions. There are no articles in scientific reference books directly devoted to the Society of GalicianGreek Catholic Priests and the Peremyshl Cultural and Educational Circle. They are mentioned in the articlesof reference publications on the history of western Ukrainian lands, in articles devoted to famous figures ofthe Ukrainian cultural and national-state revival, sometimes – from the history of Przemyśl. Information aboutthem is incomplete, short, vague, even contradictory, in particular, regarding their names and participants. Thereference publications mention either only the society or the club, sometimes – both organizations. There is noinformation that their activities were identical, and that many of their figures were among the main members ofboth organizations. It is not reported that the church society was founded by the Peremyshl Council of Rusianpriests in 1816, which was actively opposed by both the Catholic Church and the Polish administration inGalicia. It is not reported that after losing the right to act in accordance with its statute, church society wastransformed into a cultural and educational club – a public association. The club also included church andsecular figures who not only contributed to the introduction of teaching in the Ukrainian language but werealso participants in the so-called «alphabet war».Keywords: national revival, Przemyśl, society of Galician priests, Przemyśl cultural and educationalclub, alphabetical war.

ACTIVITIES OF THE RSFSR NARKOMNATS (PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIAT OF NATIONALITIES) ON CREATION OF NATIONAL AUTONOMIES

The national question was one of the most painful in the multi-ethnic Russian Empire, it sounded especially acute at the beginning of the XX century. In order to attract representatives of different ethnic groups to its side, the new Soviet state pursued a purposeful policy of implementing national-state construction. It should be emphasized that in the historical realities of 1918-1920s such a solution to the national question, which was implemented by the Soviet government, was unique. In no other country in the world at such a level (granting nations the right for self-determination up to separation and formation of their own state), the issue has not been raised or resolved. That is why the Bolsheviks did not have the opportunity to adopt anyone’s experience in this area, which should be attributed to one of the objective reasons for the mistakes made by Moscow in implementing this process. The article is devoted to the study of the experience in national-state building in the RSFSR, which was conducted under the leadership of the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities. The current work on preparing conditions to form autonomies in specific regions of the country (strengthening the Soviet authorities, conducting the policy of education and indigenization, publishing textbooks and organizing education in schools in national languages, etc.) was implemented by special not only functional, but also territorial Narkomnats departments such as, for example, Chuvash, Mari, Votsky ones, etc. Based on the analysis of materials from archival funds and generalization of research literature, the article shows the role of Narkomnats and its national departments in creating national-territorial autonomies in the RSFSR. In the opinion of the authors, it is necessary to continue the work on further studying the history of establishing individual autonomous associations that have not received proper coverage in the historiography of the problem to date. These, for example, include the autonomy of the Crimea and the Volga Germans. In this article, the authors dwell in more detail upon the activities of the Chuvash Department of Narkomnats, the choice of which is due to several reasons. Firstly, the work experience of this department turned out to be quite successful (it was established in May 1918, abolished after autonomy proclamation in June 1920), since in a relatively short period of time it was able to prepare the necessary prerequisites for autonomy establishment. Secondly, in 2020, the Chuvash people celebrated the 100th anniversary of statehood, in connection with which the interest in this page of the history of Chuvashia began to attract the attention of modern scientists again. The study makes no claims to be exhaustive, but makes a certain contribution to the coverage of the issue.

The Communist Theory of International Relations

This essay analyses the distinctive effects of Marxist-Leninist ideology and Communist practice on states ruled by Communist parties and states with non-Communist or ‘bourgeois’ regimes. Communist regimes assert that they are historically destined to triumph over ‘capitalist’ and ‘imperialist’ governments. From 1917 to 1944, the Soviet Union was the sole Communist-governed state. Since 1944 there have been multiple Communist-ruled states. Such states generally have formal state-to-state relations in addition to Communist party-to-party relations. Non-Communist-ruled states may have oppositional relations with domestic and foreign Communist parties as well as formal relations with the foreign ministries of Communist-led states. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has claimed that its decisions bind all Communist parties, but it has also accepted the primacy of a global gathering of Communist parties. Disputes among Communist parties over doctrine and interests that are theoretically congruent raise questions about the coherence of the ideology. Forming a Communist world-state to suppress national rivalries could offer a solution, but at the cost of abandoning national state sovereignties and the autonomy of specific Communist parties.

Spatial Imaginings in the Age of Colonial Cartographic Reason: Maps, Landscapes, Travelogues in Britain and India by Nilanjana Mukherjee

Nilanjana Mukherjee’s book looks at construction of space, leading from imaginative to concrete contours, within the context of the British imperial enterprise in India. Fundamental to her argument is that colonial definitions of sovereignty were defined in terms of control over space and not just over people, and hence it was first necessary to map the space and inscribe symbols into it. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, imperialism and colonization were complex phenomena that involved new and imminent strategies of nation building. No other period of British history, as Linda Colley has noted, has seen such a conscious attempt to construct a national state and national identity (Colley 1992). Although the physical occupation of India by the British East India Company could be said to have begun with the battle of Plassey (1757), nevertheless the process of conquest through mediation of symbolic forms indicate the time and manner in which the ‘conquest’ was conscripted

Setting Aside Settings: On the Contradictory Dynamics of “Flat Earth,” “Ordinalization,” and “Cold Spot” Education Governing Projects

Place matters, and for schools located in the neighborhoods of towns and cities, place not only holds meaning for individuals, but shapes their experiences of school and education trajectories. This is not simply a question of meaning and identity. Rather, it is that education settings and their opportunity structures shape and are shaped by structural inequalities, in turn reproducing differences. In this paper, I make the case that the state plays an important role in producing inequality by the ways in which it governs, and that contemporary forms of governing on the global level exacerbate these differences whilst erasing the differences that matter. I explore these dynamics by focusing on socio-economic differences between schools in England, UK. I argue that a particular politics of state spatial power is at play, and that the national state and shadow sovereigns manage questions of authority and legitimacy through the use of ideologies (e.g., school effectiveness, social mobility), devices (such as rankings and league tables), and explanations of cause (such as aspiration gaps), with which one can re-express the problem of difference, not as structurally caused, but as a failure of individual effort, expectations, and aspirations.