Chasing Greatness, On Russia's Discursive Interaction with the West over the Past Millennium

Author

Reshetnikov; Anatoly

Year

2024

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-0-47290-438-9

Link

Last Update

16-Nov-2025

Keywords

Political Science ; Slavic Studies ; International Relations ; security-studies-discipline

Description

In the last couple of decades, Russia has been talking a lot about being a great power (velikaya derzhava or simply derzhava).¹ Such rhetoric often appears in various programmatic speeches and political manifestos,² in expert op-eds and interviews,³ as well as in forecasts and policy analyses published by Russian think tanks.⁴ Russia also seconded its great power rhetoric with aggressive military action both in its immediate neighborhood (Ukraine and Georgia) and in other regions (Syria). In the West, the concept “great power” evokes unambiguous connotations. Namely, it refers to some privileged status in the international system. A great power either...