"Russian Imperial Consciousness". War Dictionary by Nikolai Karpitsky

Source: PostPravda.info 23.02.2025
URL: https://postpravda.info/en/stories/dictionary-of-war/russian-imperial-consciousness/

How differently do Ukrainians and Russians relate to their own countries? Why, despite changes in regimes and ideological systems in Russia, does one thing remain constant – continuous military expansion? What is it in the structure of Russia’s imperial consciousness that prevents it from living peacefully with its neighbors? These questions are addressed by Nikolai Karpitsky in the article “Russian Imperial Consciousness” for the “Dictionary of War” on PostPravda.Info.

Russian Imperial Consciousness

Russian imperial consciousness originated during the period of the Muscovite Tsardom, when Russia was not yet an empire. Its foundation lies not in identification with one’s country as a shared destiny, but in identification with the authority to which people entrusted their fate. Russia’s socio-political system could change, yet the drive for expansion through military conquest remained constant.

The Country as a Shared Historical Destiny

The state is a social concept connected to a territory under the jurisdiction of a national legal system. A country, by contrast, is a cultural and historical concept encompassing the living space of a community united by a sense of shared destiny. Such a community may consist of a single people or of several peoples living together within a given territory.

A person perceives their country not only geographically – as a territory with a particular landscape – and not only socio-politically – as a system of government – but also existentially, as a shared historical destiny. In times of war, this sense of shared destiny manifests itself in a selfless readiness to defend the country and help others. In Ukraine, during Russia’s full-scale invasion, this was expressed in mass heroic resistance to aggression, the development of a volunteer movement, and the preservation of hope for liberation among people living under occupation. This feeling does not depend on attitudes toward particular political forces or on who happens to lead the state at a given historical moment. People may be critical of the Ukrainian authorities, yet this does not affect their existential perception of Ukraine as their shared destiny.

There is a fundamental difference in how Russians and Ukrainians understand their own country. For a bearer of Russian imperial consciousness, any territory under the control of central authority is considered Russia, even if it is historically the territory of another country. Therefore, for many Russians, the occupied territories of Ukraine are already Russia. For Ukrainians, by contrast, their country is a shared destiny rather than territory controlled by one authority or another; thus, Ukraine remains a single country as long as people preserve a sense of shared destiny with their compatriots under occupation.

The Sense of Shared Destiny

Destiny is a shared meaning that connects historical events with the events of personal life. In existential experience, destiny is felt as a sense of belonging to a social community that gives one’s own life new meaning and value.

Identification of a person with a social community is formed on the basis of certain characteristics. For example, a people may unite through language, culture, or religion; however, these features are not universal. One people may speak several languages, and different peoples may use the same language. The same applies to culture and religion. The indispensable feature without which a people cannot exist is a sense of shared destiny. Moreover, a person from another culture, speaking a different language, may come to a country and share a common destiny with its people. In this sense, a country is a land connected with the sense of shared destiny of a particular people.

If a social community is formed on the basis of ideology, this often leads to a totalitarian system in which discrimination or repression is directed against all those considered ideologically alien. By contrast, a community grounded in the existential sense of a shared historical destiny excludes totalitarianism. Understanding one’s country as a shared historical destiny presupposes recognition that people may hold different beliefs and that among them are those who interpret historical destiny differently and do not feel unity with their country.

After Russia’s invasion in 2014, volunteers from across Ukraine helped residents affected by aggression regardless of their political views or which side they supported. Even when certain residents of Ukraine placed greater trust in Russia, Ukrainian volunteers still regarded them as Ukrainians because they felt bound to them by a shared destiny. This example demonstrates that an existential sense of community with one’s country cannot be imposed. As soon as it begins to be forcibly imposed on others, it degenerates into imperial consciousness.

The Aggressive Form of Imperial Consciousness

Within imperial consciousness, a sense of community with the country is attributed to those who do not actually possess it. Yet what can be imposed by force is not a feeling but only an ideological attitude. Therefore, the absolutization of the sense of community as a norm obligatory for all can exist only in the form of an imperial political ideology. In this case, the absence of this feeling is interpreted as betrayal or a crime.

In its most aggressive form, imperial consciousness attributes a shared historical destiny not only to the entire population of its own country but also to neighboring peoples beyond its borders. In particular, Russian imperial consciousness ascribes to all Ukrainians a sense of community with Russia and, on this basis, denies Ukrainian identity, the Ukrainian language, and Ukraine itself as a separate country. Ukrainians who disagree with this are perceived as traitors to Russia and enemies to be destroyed.

Russians do not conceive of Russia as an ordinary country outside an empire. Therefore, the understanding of a country as a shared destiny does not apply to Russia itself. Among Russians, the image of Russia is shaped by an understanding of their shared destiny with an aggressive military empire whose existence presupposes constant expansion and requires regular human sacrifice. Russia’s war against Ukraine has posed an existential question for each of them: whether they will continue to bind their fate to the empire and central authority, or seek another form of shared destiny with the land on which they live. But to do so, they must overcome the fear of losing identification with the empire – a fear through which Russian imperial consciousness is continually reproduced. Only then does the possibility emerge for the formation of new identities grounded in a shared destiny with the peoples and lands forcibly incorporated into the empire.