Russia in World History: A Transnational Approach

Russia in World History offers a fresh perspective on Russian history by comparing it to the British Empire. It challenges the notion of Russia as an outlier and reveals the shared imperial practices of European empires. Through the lives and experiences of famous thinkers, the book promotes a different way of thinking about modern Russia and its place in the world.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 24 February 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Russia in World History employs a comparative framework to comprehend Russian history within a global context. The book challenges the notion of Russia as an outlier of European civilization by examining select themes in modern Russian history alongside cases drawn from the British Empire. Choi Chatterjee delves into the concepts of nation and empire, selfhood and subjectivity, socialism and capitalism, and revolution and the world order in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Through this analysis, she rethinks many historical narratives that starkly juxtapose a liberal West against a repressive, authoritarian Russia. Instead, Chatterjee advocates for a broader perspective that reveals that imperial practices related to the appropriation of human and natural resources were shared across European empires, both East and West. Incorporating the stories of renowned thinkers such as Leo Tolstoy, Emma Goldman, Wangari Maathai, Arundhati Roy, among others, this unique interpretation of modern Russia is woven together from the diverse lives and experiences of those individuals who challenged the status quo and promoted a different way of thinking. This groundbreaking book offers profound and provocative ideas about the history of the modern world, making it an essential reading for students of both modern Russian and world history.

Weight: 560g
Dimension: 164 x 241 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350026421