Soil and Soul: The Symbolic World of Russianness(Nationalism & Fascism in Russia)

In recent years the issue of identity has come to occupy the centre of political, sociological, anthropological and cultural studies. Nationality is not the only identity-defining contemporary discourse, even if it is now one of the most dominant ones. But, whatever avenues are opened up in the exploration of contemporary identities, whether in the name of nations, humanities, classes, races, cultures, ethnicities, genders, or social movements, they remain constrained by ontological, political and discursive options expressed in claims about the sovereignty of territorial states. This book is concerned with the various connections and restraints that exist between the changing historical reality of the Russian territorial state and the ideal world of national mythology. It comprises of essays devoted to national self-consciousness in Russia, the empire that vanished in 1917, together with its traditional symbolism. A continuity of symbolic expression is traced between seemingly diverse patterns of pre and post-Revolutionary Russian social life: between Russian autocracy and the Soviet leader cult; orthodoxy and unquestioning faith in the only true Communist ideaology; and also between Russian nationalism and Soviet collectivism and populism. The main aim is to provide an orientation in the symbolic world of Russian self-identification, and thus to outline a comprehensive background to the current political discourse about the road to the future Russia.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Symbolic communication: the symbolic world of Russianness; symbol and myth; the mythic idea; culture as symbolic communication; self and other; sources and methods. Part 2 Territorial symbolism - the double-headed eagle: history in a nutshell; St. George; St. Andrew; split eagle; decoding the eagle; colour symbolism; territorial marking; territories and titles; the territorial imperative; expansion and colonization; return of the eagle. Part 3 Symbols of the centre: the wandering centre; Moscow - concentric structures; Petersburg - centre and periphery; modernism and polarization; the prestige of the centre; rival centres; Red Square; periphery as opposition. Part 4 The Tsar - father to the people: saintly princes; Tsar and God; the Monomakh crown; the pious ruler; hero and father; the era of empresses; foreign metaphor; Tsar and people; the last Tsar. Part 5 Orthodox Christianity - the collective spirit: the legend of choice; pagan heritage; Byzantine connections; unifying power; the third Rome; western influences; the schism; vehicles of meaning; icons - windows to heaven; the trinity; virgin of Vladimir; holy Russia; millennium; Christ the saviour. Part 6 Mother Russia - soil and soul: beloved motherland; feminine Russia; concentrated martiarchy; sacrifice; hills of heroes; womanhood and nationhood; soil and soul; the face of Russia. Part 7 Ethnic symbolism - real Russianness?: folk tradition; the mythic and the aesthetic; folk dress; heaven and earth; national food; ritual food; food as fantasy; bread and salt; protected space; Easter eggs; kissing customs; the history of vodka; drinking habits; drinking tea; ethnicity and nationality. Part 8 Russian stereotypes: national character; "Russkii Narod"; collective body; what's in a name?; we and others; purity of the nation; language and ethnicity; Russian time and space; money and wealth; utopian worlds. Part 9 Creation of the nation - a symbolic discourse: the Russian idea; creation of history; protective formula; the Slavophile utopia; the Russian home; narrating the nation; the "Narod" in collections; museum and Empire; the intelligentsia; national culture; Pushkin and Co.; whose project?; the Eurasian temptation. Part 10 Understanding Russianness: ambivalent space; the nesting principle; enigmatic Russia; current discourse; cultural archaeology; national regeneration; parts and wholes; understanding?.