History as Therapy: Alternative History and Nationalist Imaginings in Russia (Post-Soviet Society)

University of Wollongong, Australia ^ | 2014 | Konstantin Sheiko and Stephen Brown

[GoldenState_Rose]

"For Russians disillusioned with their initial experience of capitalism and democracy, alternative history offered a therapy in which the problems of today gave way to new images of past glory."

In 2009, we wrote a book entitled Nationalist Imaginings of the Russian Past. Anatolii Fomenko and the Rise of Alternative History. Its focus was the explosion of 'alternative' history, a publishing phenomenon that emerged in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The leading light in this movement was, and remains, Anatolii Fomenko, a Sovietera mathematician who claimed that the standard historical chronology was hopelessly inaccurate and that conventional history had failed to notice the existence of a remarkable Slav-Turk empire that dominated much of the world before modern times.

Ridiculed by the academic establishment, Fomenko had his revenge when his books outsold the conventional historians many times over. Fomenko's books inspired countless imitators and critics writing within the field of 'alternative history'. The common themes of these writers are the greatness of Russia and the Western plot against Russian history. .

In recent years, the geopolitical strategy of the Putin regime and the imperial dreams of alternative history have synchronized. This book explains the rise of alternative history within an older historical pattern. In each period of Russian history, a new regime has insisted upon the rewriting of the past to suit the needs of the present. Long before it was fashionable to do so, alternative historians wrote the ideological script for a new Russian Empire...

[GoldenState_Rose]

"Stalin’s popularity in Russia triples since 1990"

https://www.rt.com/politics/383597-stalins-popularity-in-russia-grows/

"Putin's plan to restore the Romanovs"

http://orthochristian.com/96323.html

[PGR88]

For Russians disillusioned with their initial experience of capitalism and democracy, alternative history offered a therapy

Russia in no way experienced capitalism and democracy in 1991. What it actually experienced was the final chapter of socialism and forced collectivism - total corruption of the political class, naked gangsterism, extreme rent-seeking, and complete stripping of the economy to a maximum degree by cronies. It is something which America is also getting a small taste of now as well.

[GoldenState_Rose]

Hello PGR,

RATHER THAN understanding how democracy and capitalism actually WORK and embark upon the robust debates and sacrificing ordeals necessary to obtain and upkeep the corresponding institutions —> the Russian people decided “freedom” was too much for them, or a fraudulent concept to begin with at best.

Therefore, they chose to indulge in “Alternative History” as a way to forge a stable, national identity revolving around nostalgia for Russian Empire and USSR — and to unify around the purpose of avenging its collapse.

They willingly relinquished their freedoms in favor of Putin’s hard iron grip and control over every sphere of their society.

And chose things like territorial land-grabs (Crimea) and foreign military adventures (Syria) over the work of economic diversification and modernization.

I am tired, especially in the age of Trump and MAGA, of hearing Americans boo-hoo-ing everything here. Give the man credit he deserves and the American people for voting him into office. Freedom is a struggle, we fall sometimes and Americans understand this more than any people in the world. We’re not going to delude ourselves into some false utopia. The world has a lot to learn from our history and our capacity for examining our past objectively. (Or at least to know there’s room for debate.)

Thanks.

[vladimir998]

Anatolii Fomenko published a seriously bizarre multi-volume work which claims the Catholic Church (well, of course!) accomplished the greatest intellectual fraud in history: Tricking everyone into believing that 2,000 years have passed since the time of Christ when in reality it was only 1,000 years. Thus, the crusades were not a fight against Muslims in the Holy Land, but rather an attack against those who crucified Christ! Or something like that. It’s been several years since I read parts of the first volume.

Truly bizarre, profusely illustrated, packed with pseudo-learning and pseudo scholarship and utterly convincing to a growing number of gullible rubes.

Here’s the Amazon.com page for the first of the volumes in the series: https://www.amazon.com/History-mathematical-statistics-Eclipses-Chronology/dp/2913621074/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515975859&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Anatolii+Fomenko There is a lengthy description of the gist of the book.

[Bookshelf]

Russians have a terrible inferiority complex. Fomenko only helps to prove the point.

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 1/14/2018, thanks GoldenState_Rose. Hadn't talked about this garbage in a long time, a link to a book about it was the very first post in the GGG 'blog topic. Kinda the flip side of the Tartarian Empire goofballism.