The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (review)

This significant monograph supersedes a plethora of treatments of premodern East Slavic identity. Rarely is a study so judicious in its evaluation of primary sources in the original languages as it is ambitious in scope. Plokhy seamlessly interweaves analysis of medieval chronicles and early modern diplomatic sources with critical evaluation of the grand narratives that have become central to the identities of modern Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians.

The first three chapters of the book are devoted to medieval identities. Plokhy challenges the notion of an Old Rus' nationality, dismissing the simplistic visions of ancient unity and continuous fraternal feelings that were promoted by Soviet historians. The next three chapters analyze the identity projects of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Significant attention is devoted to early modern identities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the shifts in political loyalties that resulted from post-Reformation religious policies and polemics. Plokhy proves that the paradigm of reunification of lost Rus' lands that was central to both imperial Russian and Soviet historiography finds little support in the diplomatic documents of the period.

In the final section of the book, Plokhy argues that although some Ukrainian intellectuals advanced a vision of a Little Russian fatherland that excluded Russians and Belarusians from their imagined community, others played a central role in shaping the “all-Russian identity” that pervaded the Russian imperial project. Much of what modern Russians believe about their nation, origins, and affinities to other East Slavs can be traced to intellectual constructs first articulated in early modern Ukraine.

Because this book will serve as a foundation for all future studies, a few minor omissions should be noted. The sections on medieval history would have benefited from consideration of several studies by Henryk Paszkiewicz, who ably covered similar ground in the mid-twentieth century. Belarus' recedes into the background after 1654, and the intellectual trends of late seventeenth-century Muscovy are not traced in depth. Later chapters offer little treatment of popular identifies and the kinds of sources that allow historians to access them (petitions, interrogations, court cases, etc.).

The only major criticism pertains to the author's contention that early modern Russians lacked a developed ethnonational vocabulary to distinguish themselves and their people (see especially 216, 235). Abundant examples of vocabulary related to nations and national identity can be documented decades before the Petrine period, and the influence of Western concepts in shaping Russian national identity can be traced to seventeenth-century translations of European newspapers, German cosmographies, and Polish histories.

This book will become essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the premodern roots of modern divisions in Eastern Europe. Scholars interested in the historiography of the Middle Ages and early modern era, as well as in religion, identity, and nation-building, will find in this book a nuanced story of the mutual invention, complicated interaction, and cultural construction that has influenced East Slavic politics and self-perceptions for hundreds of years.