Timothy Snyder, The Making of Modern Ukraine, Lecture #21: Comparative Russian Imperialism
The 21st lecture of Yale historian Timothy Snyder’s course, The Making of Modern Ukraine, was given by Arne Westad. Professor Westad is a scholar of modern international and global history, with a specialization in the history of eastern Asia since the 18th century. Westad has published sixteen books, most of which deal with twentieth century Asian and global history.
Since the mid-2000s, Westad has been concerned with more general aspects of post-colonial and global history, as well as the modern history of China. Three of his recent works are The Global Cold War, which argues for ways of understanding the Soviet-American conflict in light of late- and post-colonial change in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean; Restless Empire, which discusses broad trends in China’s international history since 1750; and The Cold War: A World History, which summarizes the origins, conduct, and results of the conflict on a global scale. Currently, Westad focuses on researching histories of empire and imperialism.
Westad joined the faculty at Yale after teaching at the London School of Economics, where he was School Professor of International History, and at Harvard University, where he was the S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations. He is a fellow of the British Academy and of several other national academies.
Professor Westad’s lecture centered on the question of how Russian imperialism fits into that of other empires. He feels the deeper context of the Ukrainian invasion has been overlooked and needs more background.
When the Russian Empire was formally established as a political entity in the 18th century, it stood in direct competition with three other empires, the Qing Dynasty to the east, the Ottoman Empire to the south, and the British Empire, whose expansion into Central Asia encroached on Russia’s own expansion. This competition resulted in the main drivers of Russian imperialism, many of which can be applied to all empires.
These drivers were: 1) A sense of uniqueness, or exceptionalism, combined with authenticity, the idea that there is an almost mystical connection with everyone in the empire (American exceptionalism is a good example of this); 2) An emphasis that expansion is defensive (Empires feel under constant threat); 3) Expansion is opportunistic, that is, it takes advantage of weaknesses in other empires; 4) An emphasis on bureaucracy; 5) Exploitation of resources (Russia has been particularly inefficient in this regard, because it is dependent on land routes); 6) Settlement. Like Great Britain, Russia promoted massive settlement in areas it colonized.
This last point was something I wish Westad had elaborated on. The reason Britain and Russia were able to promote massive settlement was due to the elimination of the native populations, which were either killed en masse or moved. (British colonies which were not settled included India, whose population could neither be eliminated nor moved.) The Russian Empire was not loathe to killing native populations by the millions, making de-populated areas in Central Asia and the Caucasus “Russian” by default.
Westad made comparisons with other empires to bring his examination of the Russian Empire (including the USSR and post-USSR) into focus. Both Britain and France initially colonized areas that were nearby: Ireland and Algeria. These regions then become an intrinsic part of the home country, and inseparable from it. The language of the home country was adopted, and the inhabitants of the nearby colonized lands served as soldiers in continuing wars waged by the colonial power.
This comparison is particularly apt in Ukraine’s case, because not only has Russia declared its nearby colony of Ukraine an intrinisic part of Russia, it has culturally Russified it and used Ukrainians as soldiers in addition to using them as workers. (Which is why we hear Ukrainians saying they will no longer be “slaves” to Russia.)
Westad predicts that the imperialistic war currently being waged by Putin in Ukraine will lead to collapse in Russia. But the collapse of the USSR was what led to Putin’s expansionism to begin with, a course of action which has only furthered Putin’s popularity among Russians (at least in its initial stages). Russians, Westad said, are held back by their “imperial mindset” and “this mindset always ends badly.” Russia, he continued, “needs a reckoning with the past.”
You can watch Arne Westad’s lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWRXLrJhqA0
The syllabus for the course is here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/syllabus-of-my-ukraine-lecture-class
You can watch all of Timothy Snyder’s lectures for The Making of Modern Ukraine here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNewfxO7LhBoz_1Mx1MaO6sw_
You can read my summaries of his lectures here: https://ericaverr.medium.com/
Erica Verrillo is the author of the Phoenix Rising Trilogy (Random House). Her short work has appeared in over a dozen publications. She is also the author of the definitive reference guide for treating myalgic encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide, now in its second edition (first edition, St. Martin’s). She holds degrees from Tufts University (BA — History) and Syracuse University (MA — Linguistics) as well as doctoral work in Linguistics, Anthropology, and Speech Communication. Her professional life includes: Spanish language editor for the journal Mesoamerica, linguistics instructor (Dartmouth), Spanish and ESL instructor (Syracuse University), classical musician (Oxford Symphony Orchestra), Mayan linguist (SUNY Albany), and director of a non-profit NGO for Mayan refugees. She is the president of the American Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to to serving the needs of patients and caregivers through support, advocacy, and education. Her writing blog, Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity, has received nearly 8 million page views. You are welcome to visit.
