Call for Papers Ideas of Europe and Images of Russia: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present

Call for papers Convegno Ideas of Europe and Images of Russia: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Scadenza: 25-03-2024 Referente: Matthew D'AuriaEmail : m.dauria@uea.ac.uk Link: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20024368/ideas-europe-and-images-russia-eighteenth-century-present The geo-cultural relationship between Europe and Russia has been a source of intrigue for scholars, historians, philosophers, novelists, and politicians since at least the late seventeenth century. Catherine the Great envisioned Russia as a blend of ‘European sophistication’ and ‘Slavonic values’, while Fyodor Dostoevsky saw the Russian soul as a ‘complex mosaic, woven with threads of European rationality and Asian mysticism’. The debate on Russia’s belonging to Europe persisted among Russian elites, with European observers often viewing Russia as a periphery to civilise or as ‘the Other’. In the nineteenth century, views varied; some, like Elisée Reclus, considered the Russian Empire a place of despotism, contrasting it with civilised Europe. Friedrich Nietzsche, on the other hand, believed that Russia could regenerate a decadent Europe. The First World War and the events of 1917 led some to argue Russia had returned to ‘Asiatic’ barbarism, ideas that kept influencing Cold War projects of European unification. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the path to a novel phase in the political and intellectual relationship between Europe and the Soviet Union/Russia, Topics of discussion may include, but are not limited to: • The history of Europeanization efforts in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union • Religion, the arts, and images of Europe and Russia • The cultural and intellectual history of geopolitics and alliance-making in relation to Russia and Europe • Europeanism and Pan-Slavism • The Soviet Union and projects of European unification • Eurasianism and the European Far Right • The Western labour movement, the USSR, and Europe • Peace movements, the USSR, and alternative projects of European unification • Perceptions of Europe and Europeanness among minority groups and nationalities (Georgians, Ukrainians, Jews, etc…) of the Russian Empire/USSR • Russian political emigration and notions of Europe • The impact of the Russo-Ukrainian War on conceptions of Europe Segnalato da: PATRICIA CHIANTERA