From the Editors: Project AI: “The State of Art in History Writing on Empire and Nation”

436 От редакции / From the Editors In this issue Ab Imperio continues to publish materials pertaining to the problem of representation of nation and empire in history writing and the usages of history in public discourse on national and regional identity. History is very much “alive” in this sense in the region of Eastern and Central Europe. One need not introduce sophisticated techniques of “New literary historicism” to make historical past relevant for the contemporary generation of the post-soviet countries, grappling with the issues of identity, borders , political guilt, and encounters with neighboring nations and cultures. Policy-makers in new national states on the post soviet space (all of which aspire to become nation-states but retain a visibly multiethnic population) consider historical claims and history curriculum as important components of political legitimation and formation of nationally conscious citizenry. We are far from belief that historians as a unified profession must or can control the usages of the past in contemporaneous public discourse. Neither do we subscribe to the position that a universal panacea can be devised to harmonize relationship between professional history writing and the historians ’political, national, cultural, and religious affiliation. However, we do believe that a relatively autonomous scholarly discussion can and should be carried out, whose implications should not be read as challenges to the existing international and domestic political systems and whose impact may contribute to keeping the conceptual horizons of contemporary policymaking open to alternatives. From the EDITORS PROJECT AI: “THE STATE OF ART IN HISTORY WRITING ON EMPIRE AND NATION” ...