Writing the Empire: Russia and the Soviet Union in Twentieth-Century Historiography

Abstract

Geschichtsregion is not an essentialist concept made for deduction. A historical region is a point of reference for synthesis. It is always necessary to define in what field and period of history a historical region is created. Political, social, economic, religious and cultural histories can produce different maps of a historical region. The same holds true for different epochs of European history such as the Middle Ages, Early Modern and Modern history. Geschichtsregionen are constructed by comparison. Thus, it is important to define with what the comparison should be made. This article suggests imperial history as a field of comparative history and of Beziehungsgeschichte to create Russia as a historical region. Seven points of comparison are discussed: (1) space, (2) state, (3) foreign policies, (4) elites, (5) economy, (6) religion and (7) culture. Taken together, these issues provide a picture of Russia along the lines of imperial history. This does not mean to exclude other fields of research such as, for example, peasant history from creating historical maps of Russia as a distinct Geschichtsregion.