The Story of the Russian Sonderweg: Understanding Russian Nationalism

Abstract

The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union as a whole led to a process in which modernization was increasingly questioned. In this era, in which abstract rationalism, which emerged with the Enlightenment's claim to universality, declined, alternative historical

conceptions began to leave their mark on “grand politics”. Following the cosmopolitan, liberal optimism of the 1990s, the increasing culturalization and identity-based nature of political imagination gave new momentum to studies on nationalism, authoritarianism, and populism.Paradoxically, in a period when the end of history was proclaimed, history, culture, and identity became more central issues in the political and academic worlds. Paradoxically, in a period when the end of history was proclaimed, history, culture, and identity became more central topics in the political and academic world. In this regard, understanding countries' domestic and foreign policies means understanding their self-perceptions. From the perspective of understanding Russian politics, İdil Tunçer-Kılavuz's work, which focuses on Russia, makes important contributions in this regard. This book review will evaluate İdil Tunçer-Kılavuz's work on Russian Nationalism.

Keywords: nationalism, self-perception, Slavophilism, Sonderweg, historical imagination.