Russia in World History: A Transnational Approach by Choi Chatterjee (review)

Abstract

After the collapse of the Soviet Empire, it seemed to many in the West that history had reached its end and liberal democracy and capitalism were the future of mankind. Some even romantically toyed with the idea of “a world without Russia.”1 However, the recent tragedy in Ukraine has reminded everyone that the euphoric announcement of the death of the Soviet Empire in 1991 was a premature move. As Choi Chatterjee beautifully puts it, “Collapsing empires are dangerous places that leave treacherous eddies and shoals in their wake” (P. 145). Chatterjee’s book appears to be a timely read for anyone who seeks to understand Russia’s continuing relevance in the world. Yet this is not a book about Russia’s intellectual and cultural achievements throughout centuries, its civilizational contribution to mankind and the modern world, or its “struggle for survival” in the world arena of Great Powers.2 Rather, it is a comparative history of British and Russian imperialisms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as the afterlives of these two hegemonic empires. In this sense, the title of the book does not fully capture the comparative dimension of the book’s structure. The highlight of the book is its comparative biographical approach coupled with structural analysis. Each of the seven chapters, arranged chronologically, juxtaposes a pair of characters from either the center or the periphery of the British and the Russian/Soviet Empires and situates the protagonists’ lives and their ideas in the broader historical context. Chatterjee has followed three principles in her selection of the cast of characters. First, the characters have to “exemplify an important historical event or process that distinguished the empire of their origin” and “provide important insight into the era” (P. 9). Second, the characters’ biographies should demonstrate complexity, even contradictions and moral ambiguity in their thinking over time. Third, the characters would represent vi-