Doomed to feel like an empire? Anxieties and imperial discourse in the post-Soviet Russia’ self-identification process Cover Image

Skazana na imperium? Lęki i dyskurs imperialny w procesie samoidentyfikacji Rosji poradzieckiej
Doomed to feel like an empire? Anxieties and imperial discourse in the post-Soviet Russia’ self-identification process

Author(s): Alicja Curanović
Subject(s): Political history, Security and defense, Ontology, Politics and Identity
Published by: Instytut Europy Środkowej
Keywords: ontological security; identity; territory; empire; Russia;

Summary/Abstract: The goal of the article is to indicate the reasons why formulating a new Russian non-imperial identity has failed. Applying the Ontological Security Theory shows the fall of the USSR as a critical situation that undermined the so-called fundamental questions of the Russian identity. The return of the imperial discourse was triggered by ontological anxiety connected to two fundamental questions: social relations with the significant Other and the finitude. The article discusses in detail the latter. Pending anxiety has activated imperial habitus, which is illustrated by the case of the Russian Geographical Association.

  • Issue Year: 19/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 43-65
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish