Denis Anatolievich Anan’ev,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Anglo-American and German Studies in the Late Imperial History of the Russian Far East as Evaluated by the Foreign and Domestic Historiography (the Second Half of the 19th – Early 21st Century)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-5-14
The article gives an overview of the foreign and domestic historiography of the Anglo-American and German works on the late imperial Russian policy in the Far East. For many decades this topic retained a considerable political significance. It is established that authors of historiographical essays (A. Malozemoff, J. Kusber, S. Kotkin, I.V. Lukoyanov etc.) evaluated activities of research centers specializing in the history of the Russian Far East (Universities of Hawaii, California, Stanford etc.); identified key concepts and approaches to the study of the topic that were offered by Western specialists. Authors of historiographical works also determined a range of issues that generated intense discussion among Anglo-American and German researchers. These issues include finding out aims and results of the Russian expansion in the Far East and, in particular, finding those who were guilty of Russia’s involvement in the war against Japan; analysis of sociocultural and ethno-social processes in the region and the ensuing problem of mutual influences of “colonizers” and colonized environment etc. While emphasizing the role of ideological and political factors that affected the work of historians, the above-mentioned authors concluded that by the 1950s the concept of aggressive imperialistic policy of Russia in the Far East had become dominant in Western historiography. A more objective assessment of Russia’s activities in the region is given in the works published in the second half of the 19th – early 21st centuries. (A. Malozemoff, R. Quested, G. Lensen, D. Schimmelpennink van der Oye et al.). Among positive trends in the development of the recent English- and German-language historiography researchers mention intensification of international academic exchange, easier access to the Russian archives for foreign specialists, the latters’ desire to maintain an objective stand equally valuing the historiographical achievements of other countries.
Publishing: 28/10/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 21/06/2021
How to cite: Anan’ev D.A. Anglo-American and German Studies in the Late Imperial History of the Russian Far East as Evaluated by the Foreign and Domestic Historiography (the Second Half of the 19th – Early 21st Century) // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 5 (19), pp. 165–179. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-5-14.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2021
Keywords: Western historiography; Russian Far East; Russian Empire; late imperial period