Concluding remarks

White, J. D. (2000) Concluding remarks. In: Brennan, C. and Frame, M. (eds.) Russia and the Wider World in Historical Perspective: Essays for Paul Dukes. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke and London, pp. 209-219. ISBN 9781349400379 (doi: 10.1057/9781403913845_11)

Abstract

The theme of Russia and the world in historical perspective is a particularly challenging one, approaching it, as we do, in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise, when it is no longer clear what this ‘Russia’ is, what place it occupies in the world, or what historical traditions it embodies. As long as Russia formed the heart of the Soviet Union it had – or seemed to have – a particular identity as a country, the Cold War alignments defined its place in the world, and Russian history was mainly concerned with the processes which had produced the Soviet regime and determined its subsequent fate. Historians, as A. J. P. Taylor stated, ask themselves the question: ‘How did this state of affairs come about?’1 Until a decade ago historians of Russia had the Soviet Union as a relatively solid starting point. But the present-day Russia is still in flux, so that what Taylor calls ‘this state of affairs’ is as yet an unknown quantity.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: White, Professor James
• Authors: White, J. D.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISBN: 9781349400379

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