Imperium peryferii. Rosja i system światowy

by Boris Kagarlitsky, Łukasz Leonkiewicz (Translator), Beata Szulęcka (Translator)

Ambitne ujęcie tysiącletniej historii Rosji. Pasjonująca analiza kształtowania się współczesnego systemu-świata, tak jak zarysowuje go Wallerstein, w którym nic nie dzieje się przypadkiem. Książka obejmuje wszystkie etapy rozwoju Rosji, począwszy od wczesnych osadników, przez średniowieczną zapaść, Iwana Groźnego, Piotra Wielkiego, wojnę krymską, aż po nastanie kapitalizmu, rewolucję i okres sowiecki, a w końcu powrót kapitalizmu po 1991 roku. Imperium peryferii jednych oburzy, innych zafascynuje. W przyszłości powinno stać się klasyką.

Genres: Russia, History, Nonfiction, Economics, Russian Literature, Sociology

480 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2007

About the author

Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky is a Russian Marxist theoretician and sociologist who has been a political dissident in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. He is an associate of the Transnational Institute.

Reviews

[Kersplebedeb]

One of the best books i have read in a long time; leaning heavily at times on Soviet historian Mikhail Pokrovsky and using the framework of world-systems analysis (though as a backdrop rather than the central focus of every paragraph), Kagarlitsky provides a very readable and engaging history from the time of Rus to the post-Soviet Putin era. This is an excellent history of how Russia's (and the Soviet Union's) history has involved navigating (and often, failing to navigate) its place on the edge of the world system; i.e., in its relationships with countries like Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, and in the ups and downs of the system as a whole. It provides a good model for a country-specific study using a world systems analysis.

At the same time, despite this approach, i was sorry to see that the book did not have a fully global perspective. There was no real discussion of the Soviet Union's relations with socialist countries outside of the COMECON or with the national liberation movements in the Global South. Nothing about Cuba, nothing about the Sino-Soviet split, and even in terms of Afghanistan the country was primarily discussed in terms of its 19th century history. It is not that a book needs to discuss these things, necessarily, but for a book which discusses Russia and the Soviet Union in the world system, it would have been nice to have the omission of this aspect of Soviet foreign relations explained for readers.

[Kamila]

Bardzo ciekawe i dające do myślenia spojrzenie na historię Rosji pod względem ekonomicznym. Uprzedzam jednak, że dobrze jest sobie samą faktograficzną historię tego państwa odświeżyć przed czytaniem, bo autor jedynie nawiązuje do pewnych wydarzeń, zakładając, że wiemy o czym pisze. Trochę się zawiodłam pod koniec, gdyż okres ZSRR, na którym najbardziej mi zależało, został potraktowany wyjątkowo "po łebkach". Napotkałam też kilka wręcz rażących błędów, np. mimochodem wspomniana "perestrojka z drugiej połowy lat 90-tych" (!). Nawet jeśli autor się pomylił, to korekta powinna to wyłapać, ale widocznie już im się nie chciało albo ktoś sobie przysnął ;) Trochę też śmieszy określenie "koniec epoki Putina" (w sensie końca jego prezydentury w 2008 roku) gdy już wiadomo, że prawdopodobnie zostanie na stanowisku przynajmniej do 2036. Co w sumie pokazuje jak bardzo można się mylić gdy ktoś próbuje komentować bierzące wydarzenia.

[Tyrus]

As Kagarlitsky notes at the beginning of the book, the Russian people, like many across the world in peripheral nations, is obsessive of its own history, constantly evaluating and re-evaluating its own past. Kagarlitsky provides a re-contextualization of Russia, from the genesis of Russian society over a millennium ago to its successes and failures of the past five hundred years within development of global capitalism.

It is the most interesting and illuminating single work I have ever read on Russian history. The libraries of volumes fastidiously defending or attacking the positions of respective "Westernizer" or "Russian" tendencies - in short, those histories stressing that Russian history has somehow always been driven by internal impetus - fail to tie together the long cycles of Russian history which Kagarlitsky does. His interpretations vary from extremely interesting critical re-evaluations of historical incidents to ideas that have redefined my own understanding of a field that I am deeply involved it.

World Systems theory is a fairly disparate academic tendency. Wallerstein himself did not associate overtly with Marxism later in life, despite the allegations of Marxism directed at him by all non-Marxist critics of World Systems. And some Marxist World Systems thinkers, such as Samir Amin, take a highly opportunistic approach towards World Systems as a means of vindicating their own studies of a section of the global periphery. I found Kagarlitsky to be remarkably level-headed in his analysis. I consider myself to be critical practically to a fault, but there is next to nothing I can say I strongly disagreed with. Moreover, he instead presented numerous topics from such a perspective that I have begun to re-evaluate my own understanding of and criticism of certain ideas I had encountered earlier.

Boris Kagarlitsky was detained in June of 2023 for his opposition to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2024, he was sentenced to labor in a "correctional" penal colony, where he will remain until 2029. The end of Empire of the Periphery is as follows:

"One can complain as much as one likes about the unfortunate past, or dream of a great future. Both these courses are best suited to ideological neurotics. Those who choose action need to remember a very simple truth. The fate of Russia is inseparable from the history of humanity, and we can struggle for a better world for ourselves only through trying to build a better world for everyone. And this, of course, can be said of any country."

[Ulas Ergin]

This new book by Boris Kagarlitski is an economical history of Russia starting from 7th century. There is really nice analysis in this book, x happened and this had effect y and z which caused t in Russian economy. Every connection is nicely presented in but... i guess the audience is not the average reader but rather academical people since it becomes boring after some point and the volume is 600 pages.

[Rafał Szajchutdinow-Piotrowski]

Historia Rosji w kontekście systemu świata i analizy marksistowskiej. Dobrze napisane, bardzo ciekawe, bardzo polecam!