Medievalisms and Russia : : The Contest for Imaginary Pasts / / Eugene Smelyansky.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2024
• VerfasserIn: Smelyansky, Eugene,
• Place / Publishing House: Leeds : : ARC Humanities Press, , [2024]; ©2024
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Language: English
• Series: Arc Medievalist
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (136 p.)

This new monograph devoted to a detailed exploration of the ways in which the medieval past has been wielded to propagandic effect in Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia. From politicians’ speeches to popular culture, from Orthodox Christianity to neo-paganism, the medieval Russian past remains crucial in constructing national identity, mobilizing society during times of crisis, and providing alternative models of communal belonging. Frequent appeals to a medieval Slavic past, its heroes and myths, have provided—and continue to provide—a particularly powerful tool for animating imperialist and populist sentiments. This study explores persuasive—and pervasive—recourse to tropes concerned with the Middle Ages in Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia, seeking to explain why an often romanticized medieval past remains potent in Russian politics, society, and culture today.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NAMES, TRANSLITERATION, AND ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- Chapter 1 A CONTESTED INHERITANCE MEDIEVAL RUS AND RUSSIA’S ORIGIN MYTHS -- Chapter 2 ALEXANDER NEVSKY THE ONCE AND FUTURE PRINCE -- Chapter 3 BYZANTINE DREAMS RUSSIA AS THE “THIRD ROME” -- Chapter 4 MEDIEVALISM AS ALLEGORY THE MIDDLE AGES IN UNOFFICIAL CULTURE -- CONCLUSION -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX