Studying the history of the Habsburg monarchy in Russia in the 1990s – 2000s. Methodologies – interpretations – practices
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2025-5-70-89
Abstract
This article analyzes the development of Habsburg studies in Russia in the 1990s – 2000s. Along with a description of leading research centers (the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department of the History of Southern and Western Slavs of the Faculty of History at Moscow State University, the Russian State University for the Humanities, and North Caucasus Federal University, among others) that are developing the history of Austria-Hungary and Russian-Austrian-Slavic relations, it also presents a complex picture of the transformation of ideological approaches; the conceptual dichotomy of “national/imperial”; interpretations of the model of a multi-component and multinational state; and the influence of foreign research practices on the methodology used by Russian scholars.
Particular attention is given to an interdisciplinary approach based on a synthesis of historical, sociological, cultural, and anthropological methods for analyzing the phenomenon of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This approach allows for the study of the history of the empire and its peoples not only in geopolitical contexts but also at the level of collective identity models, the values of various social groups, economic interests, and pragmatic decisions.
About the Author
O. V. Pavlenko
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Olga V. Pavlenko, Dr. of Sci. (History), professor
6-6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
References
1. Bezborodov, A.B., Korchinskii, A.V., Pavlenko, O.V. and Shkarenkov, P.P. (2017),“Historical knowledge and professional education in the humanities”, RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. “Political Science. History. International Relations. Area Studies. Oriental Studies” Series, vol. 10, no. 4–2, pp. 290–299.
2. Bezborodov, A.B., Korchinskii, A.V., Pavlenko, O.V. and Shkarenkov, P.P. (2017), “Cultural history as a basis for historical education in the humanities”, RSUH/ RGGU Bulletin. “Political Science. History. International Relations. Area Studies. Oriental Studies” Series, vol. 10, no. 4–2, pp. 300–305.
3. Berezina, A.G. (1995), “Austrian Literature at the Department of the History of Foreign Literature at St. Petersburg University”, in Rusakova, A.V., ed., Avstriiskaya literatura XIX–XX vv. [Austrian literature of the 19th – 20th centuries], Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 106–109.
4. Bekmuhametova, D.H. (2011), “Evreiskij vopros” v Avstro-Vengrii v poslednei treti XIX – nachale XX v. [The “Jewish question” in Austria-Hungary in the last third of the 19th – early 20th century], Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation (History)], Stavropol, Russia.
5. Belobratov, A.V. (1990), Robert Muzil’: metod i roman [Robert Musil: Method and Novel], Izdatel’stvo Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, Leningrad, USSR.
6. Chubar’yan, A.O. (2015), “The role of humanitarian knowledge in modern society”, in Pivovar, E.I., Zabotkina, V.I. and Vul’f, K., eds., Rol’ gumanitarnykh nauk v sovremennom obshchestve: sostoyanie i perspektivy [The role of the humanities in modern society: current state and prospects], RGGU, Moscow, Russia, pp. 38–42.
7. Chubar’yan, A.O. (2016),“The Second World War in modern historiography and public consciousness”, Vestnik Rossiiskoi akademii nauk, vol. 86, no. 5, pp. 387.
8. Churkina, I.V. (2017), Rossiya i slavyane v ideologii slovenskikh natsional’nykh deyatelei XVI v. – 1914 g. [Russia and the Slavs in the ideology of Slovenian national democratic leaders of the 16th century – 1914], Institut slavyanovedeniya RAN, Moscow, Russia.
9. Firsov, E.F. (2015), “T.G. Masaryk in pre-war Russia and the development of CzechRussian relations”, in Stepanov, S.S. and Shkundin, G.D., eds., Pervaya mirovaya voina: vzglyad spustya stoletie. 1914 god: ot mira k voine: materialy IV Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, Moskva, 27–28 noyabrya 2014 g. [The First World War: a look after a century. 1914: from peace to war: proceedings of the 4th International Scientific and Practical Conference, Moscow, November 27–28 2014], Izdatel’stvo MNEPU, Moscow, Russia, pp. 532–540.
10. Firsov, E.F. (2016), “The Czech people on their way to independence: Commemoration of Jan Huss in Prague in 1915”, in Stepanov, S.S. and Shkundin, G.D., eds., Pervaya mirovaya voina: vzglyad spustya stoletie. 1915: Materialy V Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (25–28 noyabrya 2015 g.) [The First World War: a look after a century. 1915: from peace to war: Proceedings of the 5th Interna tional Scientific and Practical Conference, Moscow, November 27–28 Nov. 2015], Izdatel’stvo MNEPU, Moscow, Russia, pp. 601–606.
11. Fominykh, S.F. and Stepnov. A.O. (2016), Statusslavyanskikh yazykov v universitetakh Avstro-Vengrii v kontse XIX – nachale XX v. (na materialakh zhurnala “Slavyanskii Vek”) [The status of Slavic languages in the universities of Austria-Hungary in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (based on the materials of the “Slavyansky Vek” magazine], Rusin, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 141–151.
12. Freidzon, V.I. (1997), “Don’t get carried away by extremes”, in Islamov, T.M. and Miller, A.I., eds., Avstro-Vengriya: opyt mnogonatsional’nogo gosudarstva [AvstroVengriya: integracionnye processy i nacional’naya specifika. [Austria-Hungary: integration processes and national specifics], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki RAN, Moscow, Russia, pp. 9–13.
13. Goguev, B.B. (2008), Social’no-ekonomicheskoe i politicheskoe polozhenie vengerskogo nacional’nogo men’shinstva v Chekhoslovakii i Rumynii v 1918–1939 gg. [The socio-economic and political situation of the Hungarian national minority in Czechoslovakia and Romania in 1918–1939], Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation (History), Stavropol, Russia.
14. Islamov, T.M., ed. (1991), Natsiya i natsional’nyi vopros v stranakh Tsentral’noi i YugoVostochnoi Evropy vo vtoroi polovine XIX – nachale XX v. [Nation and the national question in the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki AN SSSR, Moscow, Russia.
15. Islamov, T.M. (1995), “The end of the Central European Empire: Reflections on the place and role of the Habsburg Empire in European history”, in Islamov, T.M. and Miller, A.I., eds., Avstro-Vengriya: opyt mnogonatsional’nogo gosudarstva [AustriaHungary: the experience of a multinational state], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki RAN, Moscow, Russia, pp. 25–48.
16. Islamov, T.M. (2001), “The Habsburg Empire: Formation and development, 16th – 19th centuries”, Novaya i noveishaya istoriya, no. 2, pp. 11–40.
17. Islamov, T.M. (2004), “Modernity in Central Europe: Historical conditioning. The origin. Realization”, in Modern. Modernizm. Modernizatsiya (po materialam konferentsii “Epokha ‘Modern’: normy i kazusy v evropeiskoi kul’ture na rubezhe XIX–XX vv.: Rossiya, Avstriya, Germaniya, Shveitsariya”) [Modernity. Modernism. Modernization (based on the materials of the conference “The Modern Era: norms and incidents in European culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: Russia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland”)], Moscow, Russia, pp. 47–84.
18. Islamov, T.M. and Miller, A.I., eds. (1995), Avstro-Vengriya: opyt mnogonatsional’nogo gosudarstva [Austria-Hungary: the experience of a multinational State], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki RAN, Moscow, Russia.
19. Islamov, T.M., Khavanova, O.V., Romanenko, S.A. and Nenasheva, Z.S. (2008), ‘AustriaHungary during the First World War’, in Listikov, S.V., ed., Voina i obshchestvo v XX v. [War and society in the 20th century], book 1, Nauka, Moscow, Russia, pp. 415–471.
20. Karner, S. and Tschubarjan, A., eds. (2017), Rossiya – Avstriya: vekhi sovmestnoi istorii [Russia – Austria: milestones of a joint history], Enerdzhi Press, Moscow, Russia.
21. Khanak, P. (1953), Ugnetennye narody Avstriiskoi imperii i Vengerskaya revolyutsiya 1848–1849 gg. [The oppressed peoples of the Austrian Empire and The Hungarian Revolution of 1848–1849], Academia Scienciarum Hungarica, Budapestini, Hungary.
22. Khanak, P. (1995), “National compensation for backwardness”, in Islamov, T.M. and Miller, A.I., eds., Avstro-Vengriya: opyt mnogonatsional’nogo gosudarstva [AustriaHungary: the experience of a multinational state], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki RAN, Moscow, Russia, pp. 48–62.
23. Khavanova, O.V., ed. (1997), Avstro-Vengriya: integratsionnye protsessy i natsional’naya spetsifika [Austria-Hungary: integration processes and national specifics], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki RAN, Moscow, Russia.
24. Khavanova, O.V. (2017), “Hungary in Franz Josef’s ‘Big Colorful Garden’: Political reality and historical myth”, Slavyanskii mir v tret’em tysyacheletii, vol. 12, iss. 1, pp. 274–281.
25. Khavanova, O.V. (2018), Politicheskie partii i obshchestvennye dvizheniya v monarkhii Gabsburgov, 1848–1914 gg. [Political parties and social movements in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848–1914], Moscow, Russia.
26. Khavanova, O.V. (2018), Userdie, chestolyubie i kar’era. Chinovnichestvo v monarkhii Gabsburgov v ehpokhu prosveshchennogo absolyutizma [Diligence, ambition and career: Officialdom in the Habsburg Monarchy in the Era of Enlightened Absolutism], Indrik, Moscow, Russia.
27. Klopova, M.E. (2015), “Russian and Ukrainian historiography on the national movements of the East Slavic population of Galicia in the 19th and 20th centuries”, Slavic Almanac, iss. 1–2, pp. 365–378.
28. Klopova, M.E. (2018), “The Revolution of 1848 and the beginning of the political selforganization of society”, in Politicheskie partii i obshchestvennye dvizheniya v monarkhii Gabsburgov, 1848–1914 [Political parties and social movements in the Habsburg Monarchy], Ch. 1, Indrik. Moscow, Russia, pp. 29–51.
29. Kotova, E.V. (2018), “The problem of the transformation of the Absolutist Habsburg Empire into a constitutional monarchy in the 1860s and the national question”, Istoriya: Elektronnyi nauchno-obrazovatel’nyi zhurnal, vol. 9, iss. 8 (72), available at: https://history.jes.su/s207987840002462-7-1/ (Accessed 2 July 2021).
30. Kotova, E.V. (2019), “The Eastern question in Russian-Austrian relations in the 20–30s of the 19th century”, Istoriya: Elektronnyi nauchno-obrazovatel’nyi zhurnal, vol. 10, iss. 5 (79). available at: https://ras.jes.su/history/s207987840006138-0-1 (Accessed 2 July 2021).
31. Kryuchkov, I.V. and Kryuchkova, N.D. (2018), “Russia and Austria-Hungary: nonpolitical dialogue of two empires in the last third of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century”, Bylye Gody, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 1175–1185, available at: http://ejournal52.com/journals_n/1535634587.pdf (Accessed 22 Oct. 2020).
32. Kryuchkov, I.V. and Kryuchkova, N.D. (2019), “Historical memory and the Hapsburg myth: the post-traumatic syndrome of twentieth-century man and the commodity of mass consumption society”, Dialogue with Time, no. 66, pp. 86–100.
33. Kryuchkov, I.V. and Chernov, M.S. (2018), Industrializatsiya avstriiskoi poloviny imperii Gabsburgov (Tsislaitanii) vo vtoroi polovine XIX – nachale XX v. [Industrialization of the Austrian half of the Habsburg Empire (Cisleithania) in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century], Severo-Kavkazskii federal’nyi universitet, Stavropol’, Russia.
34. Lapteva, L.P. (2016), “Galician Slavist Yakov Fedorovich Golovatsky (1814–1888) and his connections with Czech scientists”, Novaya i noveishaya istoriya, no. 1, pp. 68–93.
35. Lapteva, L.P. (2015), “Galician Slavist Yakov Fedorovich Golovatsky (1814–1888) and his connections with Czech scientists”, Slavic Almanac, iss. 1–2, pp. 335–344.
36. Lapteva, L.P. (2012), Istoriya slavyanovedeniya v Rossii v kontse XIX – pervoi treti XX v. [The history of Slavic Studies in Russia at the end of the 19th – the first third of the 20th century], Indrik, Moscow, Russia.
37. Leidinger, H. and Sergeev, E. (2018), “Der Erste Weltkrieg. Der Prozess des Zerfalls beider Monarchien”, Karner, S. and Tschubarjan, A., eds. Österreich – Russland: Stationen gemeinsamer Geschichte, Leykam Buchverlag GmbH & Co, Graz, Wien, Austria, SS. 91–120.
38. Marinelli-König, G. and Pavlova, N. (1996), Wien als Magnet? Schriftsteller aus Ost-, Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa über die Stadt, Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Austria.
39. Medovarov, M.V. (2015), “The crisis of Austria-Hungary and Russian conservative thought on the eve of the First World War”, Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta imeni N.I. Lobachevskogo, no. 1, pp. 69–77.
40. Mironov, B.N. (2014), Rossiiskaya imperiya: ot traditsii k modernu [The Russian Empire: from tradition to modernity], book 1, Dmitrii Bulanov, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
41. Mironov, B.N. (2015), Rossiiskaya imperiya: ot traditsii k modernu [The Russian Empire: from tradition to modernity], book 3, Dmitriu Bulanov, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
42. Mironov, B.N. (2016), Kontseptsii i paradigmy v sovremennoi istoriografii [Concepts and paradigmsin modern historiography], Prepodavanie istorii v shkole, no. 6. pp. 37–41.
43. Müller, W. and Pavlenko, O. (2018), “Russland und die Habsburgermonarchie, 1853– 1914: von Krisen zum Untergang”, in Karner, S. and Tschubarjan, A., eds. Österreich – Russland: Stationen gemeinsamer Geschichte, Leykam Buchverlag GmbH & Co, Graz, Wien, Austria, SS. 63–90.
44. Nenasheva, Z.S. (2017), “Czechs in Russia between two revolutions: dreams, illusions and reality”, Sovremennaya Evropa, vol. 79, no. 7, pp. 88–97.
45. Nenasheva, Z.S. (2015),“The ‘conservative’ Russophilia and ‘progressive’ Westernism of the Czechs on the eve and at the beginning of the Great War in the interpretation of Russian society and official structures, and Russian society”, in Stepanov, S.S. and Shkundin, G.D., eds., Pervaya mirovaya voina: vzglyad spustya stoletie. 1914 god: ot mira k voine: materialy IV Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, Moskva, 27–28 noyabrya 2014 g. [The First World War: a look after a century. 1914: from peace to war: Proceedings of the 4th International Scientific and Practical Conference, Moscow, November 27–28, 2014], Izdatel’stvo MNEPU, Moscow, Russia, pp. 506–521.
46. Novikova, O.N. (2008), Bosniisko-gercegovinskaya politika Avstro-Vengrii poslednei treti XIX – nachala XX v. i ee rol’ v razvitii mezhdunarodnykh otnoshenii na Balkanakh [The Bosnian-Herzegovinian policy of Austria-Hungary in the last third of the 19th – early 20th century and its role in the development of international relations in the Balkans], Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation (History). Stavropol, Russia.
47. Pavlenko, O.V. (2018), “The disaster of the ‘Russian Marseillaise’ of 1917 and its interpretation in modern historiography”, Istoricheskii vestnik, vol. 23, pp. 12–37.
48. Pavlenko, O. and Bezborodov, A. (2012), “Die Aktualisierung historischer Erfahrung in russischen Lehrbüchern der 1990er und 2000er Jahre”, in Schöpfer, G. and StelzlMarx, B., eds., Wirtschaft. Macht. Geschichte: Brüche und Kontinuitäten im 20. Jahrhundert: Festschrift Stefan Karner, Leykam, Graz, Austria, pp. 589–606.
49. Petrova, M.A. (2014), “The foreign policy projects of Catherine II and Joseph II”, in Rossiisko-avstriiskii al’manakh: istoricheskie i kul’turnye paralleli [перевод], Severo-Kavkazskii federal’nyi universitet, Stavropol’, Russia, iss. 5, pp. 27–41.
50. Petrova, M.A. (2009), “Josephism and the problems of religious education in the Austrian Monarchy in the last quarter of the 18th century”, in Tokareva, E. and Inglot, M., eds., Religioznoe obrazovanie v Rossii i Evrope v kontse XVIII – nachale XIX v. [Religious education in Russia and Europe at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th century], RKhGA, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 95–116.
51. Poluboyarinova, L.N. (2006), Leopol’d fon Zakher-Mazokh – avstriiskii pisatel’ ehpokhi realizma [Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is an Austrian writer of the era of realism], Nauka, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
52. Ptitsyn, A.N. (2008), “The crisis of Russian-Austro-Hungarian relations in the second half of the 1880s and its consequences”, in Problemy otechestvennoi i zarubezhnoi istorii: mneniya, otsenki, razmyshleniya [Problems of Russian and foreign history: opinions, assessments, reflections], Izdatel’stvo Pyatigorskogo gosudarstvennogo lingvisticheskogo universiteta, Pyatigorsk, Russia, pp. 262–282. (Uchenye zapiski kafedry otechestvennoi i zarubezhnoi istorii)
53. Semenov, M.Yu. (2016), “The historical experience of the organization of public education in Austria-Hungary and Russia in the late 19th – early 20th century (using the example of the National University in Vienna and the Voronezh Society of National Universities)”, Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kul’turologiya i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 159–164.
54. Vehnk, S. (1995), “A dynastic empire or a multinational state: Reflections on the legacy of the Habsburg Empire in the national question”, in Islamov, T.M. and Miller, A.I., eds., Avstro-Vengriya: opyt mnogonatsional’nogo gosudarstva [Austria-Hungary: the experience of a multinational state], Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki RAN, Moscow, Russia, pp. 5–24.
55. Zhdanovskaya, A.A. (2018), “The first among equals? The Austrian language legislation of the 1880s and the discussion about the official language of Cisleithania”, Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 8: Istoriya, no. 4, pp. 46–59.
56. Zherebin, A.I. (2011), Vertikal’naya liniya: venskiĭ modern v smyslovom prostranstve russkoĭ kul’tury [Vertical line: Viennese Art Nouveau in the semantic space of Russian culture], Izdatel’stvo imeni N.I. Novikova, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
57. Zherebin, A.I. (2019), “The end of the Habsburg Empire and the problem of (post) modernism”, Philosophical Letters. Russian and European Dialogue, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 161–170.
Review
For citations:
Pavlenko O.V. Studying the history of the Habsburg monarchy in Russia in the 1990s – 2000s. Methodologies – interpretations – practices. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin Series "Political Science. History. International Relations". 2025;(5):70-89. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6339-2025-5-70-89
Views:
13
Email this article 