Martin Schulze Wessel: The Curse of the Empire: Ukraine, Poland, and Russian Imperialism
SEENEXT Working Group
September 23, 2024
5:45 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Institute for the Humanities Behavioral Sciences Building
Address
1007 W. Harrison St., Suite 153, Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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Before 24 February 2022, many observers saw Russia as a normal dictatorship in which the ruler was primarily interested in maintaining power. The full-scale attack on Ukraine and the way the war was waged and propagandized show that Russia follows a specific logic. The war is to be understood in the long tradition of Russia's expansion into Europe, which began at the start of the 18th century. Since then, imperial rule over Poland and Ukraine has formed the basis for the development of an East-West antagonism in international politics, which - long before the Cold War - had manifested itself ideologically. For a long time, Russia pursued its imperial claims to power over East-Central Europe in alliance with German states, Prussia and the Habsburg monarchy. Russia's adherence to imperial patterns can be described as the ‘curse of empire’, a political-ideological complex that characterizes Russian politics to the present day. The lecture traces the continuities since the beginning of the 18th century, but also analyses the possible breaks in tradition.
Date posted
Sep 5, 2024
Date updated
Sep 10, 2024