4 The Phantomic Nature of Missionary Nationalism in a Former Empire: The Case of Russia

Abstract

Only in the 20th century did empires give away their dominant position in the international arena to self-determined national states. Many celebrated the fall of the empires, but there were also a few who felt bereaved. Among the latter were members of the imperial nations, i.e. groups who identified with the imperial project the most. Empires are gone (at least for the time being), but what happened to the missionary nationalism that, in the opinion of some scholars, was characteristic of the imperial nations? The key feature of missionary nationalism, as defined by Krishan Kumar, is “the attachment of a dominant or core ethnic group to a state entity that conceives itself as dedicated to some large course or purpose, religious, cultural or political.” Hence the central category of missionary imperialism is the sense of mission. The goal of this contribution is to trace and describe the continuation of missionary imperialism in former empires, using post-Soviet Russia as the case study. While approaching Russian contemporary missionary nationalism, I focus on its crucial component, i.e. the mission. I use a broad notion of mission which combines components of different variations of messianism (e.g. missionism). I argue that mission is a conviction that a certain community (state/nation) believes is exceptional and that this exceptionality manifests itself in its special destiny. I