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The "Strangeness" of Rus' in the Mongol Era : Problems of Comparative History

The "Strangeness" of Rus' in the Mongol Era : Problems of Comparative History LAWRENCE LANGER (Storrs, CT, U. S. A.) THE "STRANGENESS" OF R US' IN THE MONGOL ERA : PROBLEMS OF COMPA RA TIVE HISTOR Y "'Curiouser and curiouser! "' cried Alice (she was so surprised that she forgot how to speak good English,)."' Russian history is a bit like Alice hur- tling through the rabbit hole, not sure what is on the other side, everything a distortion, where the past becomes filtered through the present. The Soviet totalitarian system is said to have its roots in the Russian autocratic tradition and even the current effort of reform cannot escape the autocratic past, or as Nancy Shields Kollmann has phrased it: "For those who see autocracy as despotism, Russia's future today is doomed because it lacks the essential le- gal preconditions for modem liberal development."2 Russian autocracy has been the prism through which Russian history has been examined. It has be- come the defining experience toward which medieval Rus' was in some sense destined and which gave shape to the twentieth-century totalitarian state. Whether drawn from Byzantine or Mongol models, or the result of a home- grown variety, the autocratic tradition is a common staple of the historical lit- erature and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Russian History Brill

The "Strangeness" of Rus' in the Mongol Era : Problems of Comparative History

Russian History , Volume 28 (1-4): 22 – Jan 1, 2001

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0094-288X
eISSN
1876-3316
DOI
10.1163/187633101x00154
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

LAWRENCE LANGER (Storrs, CT, U. S. A.) THE "STRANGENESS" OF R US' IN THE MONGOL ERA : PROBLEMS OF COMPA RA TIVE HISTOR Y "'Curiouser and curiouser! "' cried Alice (she was so surprised that she forgot how to speak good English,)."' Russian history is a bit like Alice hur- tling through the rabbit hole, not sure what is on the other side, everything a distortion, where the past becomes filtered through the present. The Soviet totalitarian system is said to have its roots in the Russian autocratic tradition and even the current effort of reform cannot escape the autocratic past, or as Nancy Shields Kollmann has phrased it: "For those who see autocracy as despotism, Russia's future today is doomed because it lacks the essential le- gal preconditions for modem liberal development."2 Russian autocracy has been the prism through which Russian history has been examined. It has be- come the defining experience toward which medieval Rus' was in some sense destined and which gave shape to the twentieth-century totalitarian state. Whether drawn from Byzantine or Mongol models, or the result of a home- grown variety, the autocratic tradition is a common staple of the historical lit- erature and

Journal

Russian HistoryBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2001

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