Modernization as Westernization? The geopolitical consequences of ethno-nationalism analyzed through Russian Art

Abstract

This paper argues that ethno-nationalist models of state organization encourage and strengthen sectarianism by accentuating differences between respective majority populations and those with non-majority characteristics as problematic, and identifies and explains the impacts of this for intra-state security in the West and for building partnerships with non-Western populations, citing negative implications on how we understand political behavior and for influence in military operations. The paper uses nineteenth-century Russian identity as a case study, considers the conflation between modernization and Westernization occuring at the time and uses Russian Art of the period as an analytical tool to uncover nuances that are relevant to debates concerning security, identity, and political behavior.

Keywords:

• geopolitics
• ethno-nationalism
• intra-state security
• European identity
• international security

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the late Professor Lindsey Hughes for the infectious enthusiasm for Russian art she passed on to those fortunate enough to take her class and the anonymous reviewers for their important comments. Thanks also to Dr Adam Harmes and the International Studies Association Robert and Jesse Cox Award committee for their praise of an earlier version. This article has also benefitted from discussions with Sara Johnson, Seb Dempsey, Merve Logmanogullari-Balci, Niklas Anzinger, and my great aunt Karin.

Notes

This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected. Please see Erratum (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2013.801627).

Samobytnost can be translated as literally “one's own way of being” (see Shapiro 1967, 65).

Russia defeated the French in 1812. Napoleon then suffers further defeat at the hands of the English and the Prussians in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and Allies enter Paris signalling the end of the Napoleonic Empire.

Saint Augustine (354–430) is generally accepted as one of the greatest thinkers of Christian Antiquity. His works combined classical philosophy with Christian doctrine and greatly influenced medieval thought (Shapiro 1967, 68).

Sobornost was the term used by Slavophiles for the concept of unity based on Orthodox Christian principles (Riasanovsky 1952, 162).

As Scottish poet James Macpherson influenced the early development of Romanticism with the international success of his Ossian cycle of poems published in 1762.

For examples of the contrast, one can look at the emotional restraint in Roman Nikitin's portraits of the early eighteenth century particularly the Portrait of Madame Stroganov, and Ivan Nikitin's Portrait of Tsarevna Alekseevna (1716), the style influenced by their training in Europe that was sponsored by Peter I.

Kiprensky spent time in Italy from 1816 to 1823, and later lived there in 1828. This was a period in which Italy was not yet unified under an autocratic regime and a system of autonomous regions was in place (see Hare 1965, 173).

The Itinerants were a group of painters devoted to using realism as a means of exposing problems permeating Russian society, thus the World of Art regarded it as not beautiful and grim. The irony lies in how Levitan's realism in portraying the landscape is actually what makes it visually striking and thus acceptable to World of Art.

For example, Labour Party MP Jack Straw (formerly a senior member of the British government) requested that Muslim women from his constituency remove veils covering their faces during face-to-face meetings with him, expressing concern that Islamic womens' dress could be a barrier to communication and integration of Muslims in Britain. Although it is possible to debate the necessity of the veil on religious grounds and also practical grounds in particular situations that neccessitate seeing the face for security reasons, comments were despite the fact that if a Muslim constituent wearing a veil were to attempt to communicate her opinions and concerns on local issues via official channels through meeting him, this renders the argument about communication and integration invalid. It illustrates that concerns about participation, communication and religious dress are unfounded, and paradoxically, negative reactions to religious dress may conversely hinder participation instead. The veil has also been banned in France, with French president Sarkozy stating “In our country [France], we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity”, again despite that fact that women wearing religious dress were in education and work in significant enough numbers for such a law to come into effect, thus showing the unnecessary nature of it, and the reference to identity reinforces such policy as the result of hegemonic conceptions of identity being considered normative.