East Slav's "Unity"

[Sergey Glebov]

Dear Uladzimir,

the notion of the "triedinstvo" was indeed a nineteenth century trope (based
on an interpretation of the historical development of a cultural and
political unity that presumably existed in Kievan Rus') and it was not
necessarily just a Russian (although mostly Russian) idea. It was often and
to a varying degree shared by representatives of national historiographies,
for example, by Hrushevsky or Drahomaniv (Dragomanov), not to mention Mykola
Kostomariv (Nikolai Kostomarov). The so-called "Litle Russian" identity was
not necessarily an invention of imperialists: there is evidence that at
least some people shared it. It appears to have served as a useful
instrument of upward mobility at the court in St Petersburg, where
Ukrainians (if the term can be used strictly) were often in important
positions.

I would not generalize about the acceptance of that notion in the 20th
century. There is no doubt about the fact that Soviet historiography
unambiguously recognized Belarusians and Ukrainians as nations different
from the Russian nation - united in the single "socialist state" and very
close to each other but different.
Even before 1917 many historians admitted the existence of national
boundaries between these three nations. In that respect Alexander
Presniakov's introduction to the course of lectures on Kievan Rus' dated by
1907 - 1908 is illuminating.

As far as the 18th century is concerned, I think (although I am not certain)
the authors of the website meant that late 18th century was the beginning
(however weak and tentative) of the emergence of national consciousness
among East Slavic peoples (obviously, including the Russians). The term
ethnos (etnos) is always problematic, especially if applied to the early
modern period. it often presumes unity which is not there. Can we speak of a
Ukrainian or Russian "ethnos" in the late 18th century? Where should we
place the boundary between the two?

Finally, no serious historian would claim today that Russians,
Belarus(s)ians and Ukrainians belong to the same nation. At the same time,
very few historians (and mostly representatives of nationalist
historiographies) would claim that before the age of the Soviet
nation-building effort there existed eternal and homogeneous Russian,
Ukrainian, or Belarus(s)ian nations. Rather, historians prefer to speak of
diverse East Slavic populations with mostly local, confessional, perhaps
dynastic identities. This of course not to deny that intellectuals developed
various maps - political, demographic, historical, etc - that enviosioned
such nations. Whether these maps corresponded to reality and whether they
found responses from the population is a different matter.

The journal Ab Imperio regularly publishes articles on the history of
national identities (and their reflection in historiography).

Best regards,

Sergey Glebov




----- Original Message -----
From: "Uladzimir Katkouski" <uladzik at MAILBOX.HU>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 7:35 AM
Subject: [SEELANGS] East Slav's "Unity"


Dear SEELANGers:

I already asked this question a year ago, but back then I got only two
answers that were not that helpful. So here I come again... ;)

My question is about the alleged "triedinstvo": As you know, in Russian
textbooks in 19th and 20th century (and maybe earlier) there was a very
popular notion, that East Slavs were allegedly one single "Russian"
nation, consisting of the "Great Russians", "White Russians" and "Small
Russians", and that they were really "one nation" for a "long" time, and
then "suddenly" they broke apart thanks to the "bad Polish influence" or
something like that. I've personally seen it in many old Russian texts.

Just yesterday I saw it again on wikipedia.org: "Since linguistic/ethnic
separation of the Belarusian nation as a separate ethnos around the
beginning of the 18th century, the term Ruthenia is rarely used for
Belarussians."



So the questions are:
- Where did this "18th century" came from?
- Do they still teach that in Russian history courses in Russia (or in
the US)?
- What do authorities in the field say about this "theory" these days?
- Are there good publications about that on the Net?
- What do you personally think about it?


Regards,
Uladzimir Katkouski
http://blog.rydel.net/



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