Oleg Kharkhordin | European University at St. Petersburg (original) (raw)

Papers by Oleg Kharkhordin

Bruno Latour and Christophe Leclercq, eds., Reset Modernity!, MIT Press, 2016

A short contribution to the volume of the "reset modernity!" exhibition of Bruno Latour at ZKM Ka... more A short contribution to the volume of the "reset modernity!" exhibition of Bruno Latour at ZKM Karlsruhe -

Politics of the One: Concepts of the One and the Many in Contemporary Thought. Ed. by Artemy Magun. NY: Bloomsbury, 2012., 2012

If icons are examples of non-representational art, can they tell us smth about the politics of cl... more If icons are examples of non-representational art, can they tell us smth about the politics of classical republicanism that eschewed political representation?

Firsov and Vakhtin, eds., Public Debate in Russia: Matters of (Dis)order, Edinburgh U Press, 2016

A chapter on the register of public speech, hardly available in contemporary Russian language the... more A chapter on the register of public speech, hardly available in contemporary Russian language these days, in comparison to the Robert's Rules of Order or British rules for parliamentary debate

History of Political Thought, vol. 43: 5, 2022

Bruno Latour has argued that, following the hypothesis of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, Earth... more Bruno Latour has argued that, following the hypothesis of James Lovelock
and Lynn Margulis, Earth in the era of the Anthropocene could be interpreted on the model of non-sovereignty or shared sovereignty. The article argues that theories of res publica give us a particular insight. Paradoxically, Lucretius rather than Cicero might be our best start — in particular, his notion of foedera naturae (laws or pacts of nature). A pact that natura gubernans concludes with atoms is formulated in the language of Roman politics of the republican era and it brings the issues of shared sovereignty into the forefront of discussion.

Zhit' s Dostoinstvom (To Live with Dignity) - Oleg Kharkhordin, ed., EUSP Press, 2019

An introduction and a contribution to a short edited volume that consists of articles on the cent... more An introduction and a contribution to a short edited volume that consists of articles on the centrality of the concept of dostoinstvo (достоинство, dignity) in contemporary Russian politics

Community Before and After Communism, Dec 31, 2018

This chapter is based on research that compared in 2009-2012 technological entrepreneurs in Russi... more This chapter is based on research that compared in 2009-2012 technological entrepreneurs in Russia (4 regions), Taiwan, Korea and Finland.
The resulting book that appeared in Russian and reported key findings of this research project can be found at
https://eupress.ru/books/index/item/id/328

Slavic Review, 2021

Can classical political theories of mixed constitution from Polybius to Cicero help us shed new l... more Can classical political theories of mixed constitution from Polybius to Cicero help us shed new light on Russian politics? In order to so, this article first considers political structures of such non-parliamentary republics as medieval Novgorod and Venice, while choosing Constantinople as a basis for their comparison. Second, using Anthony Kaldellis's recent book that has reinterpreted Byzantium in terms of the classical theory of res publica, it analyzes the question of auctoritas in ancient republican Rome and then imperial Constantinople. Third, the author employs Giorgio Agamben's book on the state of exception, in order to see how mechanisms of power and authority that the Roman emperors had employed might help us interpret anew the phenomenon of tsardom, given that Ivan the Terrible was the first in Russia to be crowned as tsar, that is, Ceasar. This might have a lasting significance even for present day politics.

The American political science review, 2000-06, Vol.94 (2), p.482-484, Apr 28, 2000

Основные понятия российской политики, 2011

Основные понятия российской политики. — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2011. — 328 с. Данна... more Основные понятия российской политики. — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2011. — 328 с.

Данная книга родилась из диалога между англоязычной и русскоязычной политической мыслью. Преподавая политическую теорию в конце 1990-х и начале 2000-х годов — как в Европейском университете в Санкт-Петербурге, так и в ведущих американских университетах — автор постоянно сталкивался с проблемой кросс культурного перевода. Как, например, объяснить американскому или западноевропейскому студенту, в чем заключается специфика русского термина «государство» и российского феномена под тем же названием? Или как лучше объяснить российскому студенту скрытые религиозные корни западных концепций гражданского общества?
Книга опирается на два основных подхода. Во-первых, исследования по истории понятий позволяют прояснить неочевидные прагматические аспекты ситуаций, когда складывались некоторые базовые политические термины русского языка. Во-вторых, исследования в рамках классической республиканской традиции позволяют по-другому взглянуть на знакомые понятия господствующего сейчас либерального дискурса.

Предисловие 5
Глава 1. Государство 8
Глава 2. Гражданское общество 76
Глава 3. Личное и частное 114
Глава 4. Народ и природа 167
Глава 5. Дружба 219
Глава 6. Добродетель 269
Глава 7. Собственность 313

Slavic Review question," the "social question," the "women's question," and "the Jewish question.... more Slavic Review question," the "social question," the "women's question," and "the Jewish question." What exactly was the relationship between these questions and their formulation as questions and World War I or the "Final Solution" and how did these disasters bring the age to a close? We thumb through lots of pamphlets without seeing how posing questions changed the way contemporaries thought about and acted on politics or how they constituted politics. Too many circumscribed examples-the result of Google and other digital searches-effectively postpone engagement. The argument gains neither the altitude nor the depth it anticipates. The exclamation mark she proposes for the age of questions persistently dissolves in the mind of the sympathetic but disappointed reader into a question mark.

Philosophy. Journal of the Higher School of Economics

The article deals with several aspects of the theory of mixed government (mixed constitution), gi... more The article deals with several aspects of the theory of mixed government (mixed constitution), given that many scholars, including Max Weber, considered such phenomenon of modern political systems as Ceasarism to be a mix of monarchy and democracy. In the beginning an analysis of a famous statement from the “Roman History” of Cassius Dio (who wrote that Augustus has “mixed monarchy with democracy”) is provided. Such terms from Ancient Greek as demokratia and monarchia had a very specific meaning during the time of writing of this book, i.e. 220–230 CE. But apart from studying the peculiarities of the historical meanings of the terms used to designate these forms of rule what is important is also how their juxtaposition or mixing was theorized. The article studies different terms used in such interpretations. Briefly, the term krasis meant a fusion of the components and thus a creation of a new substance with new qualities and homogeneity, while the term mixis could also mean that th...

Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie / Russian Sociological Review, 2022

https://sociologica.hse.ru/data/2022/12/31/2039749463/SO%202022-4-9-Kharkhordin-155-160.pdf

2.1 The two islands of S. Marc and Rialto: the delimitation of Rialto where the market is perfect... more 2.1 The two islands of S. Marc and Rialto: the delimitation of Rialto where the market is perfectly coincident with the island, 1710". Venice, ASV, Laguna 764 2.2 The Rialto square. Detail of a View of Venice, in Federico Montalboldo, Paesi nuovamente ritrovati per la navigazione di Spagna in Calcut..., Venezia 1517 2.3 Location of the activities, shops, points of sale and magistrates' offices in the Island of Rialto, before 1514 (date of the great fire). Reconstruction by the author on the basis of the ancient chronicles and of archive documents, based on the bird's-eye view of Venice by Jacopo de' Barbari. 2.4 Ancient settlement in the Venetian lagoon with the church (partially in stone) and the wooden houses: BNMV, Cod. Marc. Lat. Cl. XIV, c. 23. 2.5 J. Heintz, the Young (1600-1678), The procession for the festival of the Redentore with the bridge on boats in front of the island of the Guidecca. 2.6 Gabriel Bella, The "magnificent" night of the Redentore, with the bridge on boats in front of the Palladian church in the island of the Guidecca, 1782 ca. 2.7 Bird's eye view of Venice by Jacopo de' Barbari: detail of the Rialto area with the wooden bridge, 1500. 2.8 Bonifacio de' Pitati, San Lodovico di Tolosa in vesti pontificali seduto in cattedra in atto di fare l'elemosina. (as pontifex in the position of alms-giver): in the background the Rialto wooden bridge with shops on it, circa 1550, Milan, Pianocoteca di Brera. 2.9 The central opening part of the ancient wooden Rialto bridge in a detail of the famous painting by Vittore Carpaccio, The Miracle of the Cross, circa 1496. 2.10Vittore Carpaccio, The ancient wooden Rialto bridge in The Miracle of the Cross. 2.11Andrea Palladio, plan of the first project, manuscript drawing, 1550 (Vicenza) List of Figures viii 2.12Andrea Palladio, façade of the second project of the Rialto bridge, published in his : Quattro Libri dell'Architettura 1550. 2.13Antonio Canaletto, Caprice of the Palladian design project for the Rialto bridge from the Quattro Libri, later than 1744, Parma, National Gallery. 2.14Location (reconstruction by the author) of the first project by Palladio with the modification of the San Bartolomeo in a rectangular square. 2.15Felice Brunello, design project for a wooden Rialto bridge, Venice, ASV, Provveditori sopra la fabbrica del Ponte di Rialto, b. 3, dis. 9. 2.16Marcantonio Barbaro, drawing showing how the Rialto bridge should be built, as a full centred arch, with plan stones in the lateral piles, Venice, ASV, Provveditori sopra la fabbrica del Ponte di Rialto, b. 3, dis. 4. 2.17Anonymous, solution with a centred arch and a low arch for the design of the Rialto bridge in stone, Venice, ASV, Provveditori sopra la fabbrica del Ponte di Rialto, b. 3, dis. 8. 2.18Francesco Zamberlan, the piers of the Rialto bridge in stone: at the left side the Da Ponte's solution; at the right side the solution "as it should be" following the rules given from the antiquity, Venice, ASV, Provveditori sopra la fabbrica del Ponte di Rialto, b. 3, dis. 11. 2.19Jacopo da Bassano, Portrait of the architect of the Rialto bridge: Antonio da Ponte, Great Britain, private collection. 2.20Antonio da Ponte, design project with only one arch for the Rialto bridge in stone and the shop street on it: first hypothesis with the link to the square of San Bartolomeo, 1588, Venice, ASV, Provveditori sopra la fabbrica del Ponte di Rialto, b. 3, dis. 10 (redesigned by the author as the original is in very bad conditions). 2.21Vincenzo Scamozzi, solution with three arches for the Rialto bridge, elevation, 1587. London, RIBA drawing collection. 2.22Restitution proposed by Paolo Trevisan, of the arch of the Rialto bridge: technical hypothesis of the three centres and different rays, Venice, IUAV 1997. 2.23First design project by Antonio da Ponte for the street with housing and shops, linking the Rialto bridge with the square of San Bartolomeo. Restitution by the author, 1997. 2.24Second design project by Antonio da Ponte for the street with housing and shops, linking the Rialto bridge with the square of San Bartolomeo. Restitution by the author, 1997. 2.25The Rialto bridge as it is today. Photo by the author, 1987. List of Figures xii 4.17The emblem entitled 'America' from the 1611 edition of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, one possible source for Hobbes's depiction of Libertas. 4.18Thomas Hariot's Briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1590), which was illustrated by John White's paintings of native Americans, copied and engraved by Theodore de Bry. 4.19A version of the figure in the frontispiece of Hariot's book. 4.20The frontispiece in the form of an ink drawing in the unique copy of Hobbes's Leviathan, which he presented to Charles II-probably made by Wenceslaus Hollar-which is virtually identical with the frontispiece in the published version of the text. 4.21Published frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. Chapter Five-Images pp. 200-214 5.1 Paris as a rampart-crowned woman. Pont Neuf, Paris. 1854 (Photo D. Colas). The Materiality of Res Publica: How to Do Things with Publics? xiii 5.13Poster celebrating the proclamation of the Spanish Republic. Anonymous, 1931 (Private collection, Paris. Photo D. Colas). 5.14Place de la Concorde, Paris; a view from Les Tuileries. In the foreground the statue representing Lyon; in the background Rouen. Statues by Pradier, 1834 (Photo D. Colas). 5.15" Monument de la Défense de Paris" in what is now the financial district of La Défense. Barrias, 1883 (photo D. Colas). 5.16Statue representing Paris in the Place Clichy, Paris. Doublemard, 1870 (Photo D. Colas). 5.17One of the rampart-crowned statues in the Prague railway station hall. Ca. 1905 (Photo D. Colas). 5.18Female head topped with ramparts and Romanov imperial crown, Prague railway station façade. Ca. 1905 (Photo D. Colas). 5.19" Homage of the Slav Nations to Golden Prague ", mosaic on the façade of the Municipal House, Prague. Karel Spillar, 1912 (Photo D. Colas). 5.20Detail of the mosaic on the Municipal House façade, Prague (Photo D. Colas). 5.21Poster for the 1912 pan Slav Sokol Congress, Prague. Alphonse Mucha (Private collection, Paris. Photo D. Colas). 5.22" Italia " in Iconologia, Cesare Ripa, 1603 (Photo D. Colas). 5.23Detail of statue representing Italy in the monument to Alfieri by Canova, 1835. Church of Santa Croce, Florence (Photo D. Colas). 5.24Head representing Italy. Former Italian embassy on the Bosphorus, Istanbul. Late nineteenth century (Photo D. Colas). 5.25Veterans' demonstration around the statue representing Strasbourg, Place de la Concorde, Paris, at the beginning of World War I. Postcard, 1914 (Private collection Paris, Photo D. Colas). 5.26Statue of Verdun on the summit of the western wing of the Gare de l'Est, Paris (Photo D. Colas). 5.27"Monument de la Défense de Paris " on a pillar, 2007 (Photo D. Colas). 5.28Plaque commemorating Jewish primary school children deported during World War II. Official bouquet laid by Paris city authorities (Photo D. Colas).

Europe-Asia Studies, 2012

, presents the empirical findings. Oleg Kharkhordin introduces and concludes the book. The resear... more , presents the empirical findings. Oleg Kharkhordin introduces and concludes the book. The research is based on two theoretical assumptions. The first, inspired by the so-called 'new materialist' turn in social theory, holds that non-human 'things' are also capable of agency-they are, in the terminology of Bruno Latour, 'actants'-and therefore need to be re-integrated into our ontology of the political. The second is that republican theory, understood here as 'sustained collective action based on at least relatively established networks and a common identity' (p. 53), is the normative model for a democratic community. The book's bold theoretical aim is to bring actor-network theory (ANT) together with republican theory in order to 'amend' (p. 3) both mainstream social sciences which the authors claim do not sufficiently focus on res-materialityand ANT, which they consider unable to account sufficiently for collective action, the publica. In order to achieve a simultaneous analysis of materiality and collective action, the authors introduce two dichotomies. The first, drawing on insights from political economy, distinguishes 'common' from 'public' goods on the basis that while each person may claim a right to the common, its limited availability results in rivalry. Public goods are available to everyone and one person's use does not diminish another's. The second dichotomy is 'just in use' as opposed to 'in full possession'. Can the community exercise the triad of ownership rights of access, withdrawal and alienation over a given object, or is it merely able to use it? Based on these dichotomies, the book distinguishes four categories of object-oriented collective action: common use, public use, common possession and public possession. Republican democracy is considered to be actualised only in the fourth category, public possession, 'when all are engaged in taking the destiny of their city into their own hands as a public, as a people' (p. 18). The book's normative goal is to examine the question of whether one could 'get res publica into contemporary Russia somehow?' (p. 22), and the case studies, beginning in the third chapter, examine the extent to which republican practices are fostered in two Latourian 'networks': the apartment block and the city. Chapter Three examines the role of Soviet city infrastructure in inculcating or hampering the development of democratic and market-oriented norms in its users. Using three examplesheating, payment and maintenance systems-Bychkova and Popova show how Soviet 'scripts' of universalism and collectivism were built into the design of city hardware, and highlight the problems that were encountered in redesigning it according to the principles of market logic after communism's collapse. The research presented shows that most attempts were unsuccessful because they only dealt with surface issues and did not try to reform the whole system. As such, in contemporary Cherepovets, residents still 'have no chance to individualise their consumption' (p. 133).

Синдром публичной немоты, ред. БМ Фирсов и НБ Вахтин

About this book Marxism was the loser in the Cold War, but Oleg Kharkhordin is not surprised tha... more About this book
Marxism was the loser in the Cold War, but Oleg Kharkhordin is not surprised that liberal democracy failed to take root after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. He suggests that Russians find a path to freedom by looking to the classical tradition of republican self-government and civic engagement already familiar from their history and literature.

Reviews
A fascinating study, empirically informed but normatively oriented, of Russia’s republican prospects. It is imaginatively shaped by political theory, the history of ideas, and a multiply-documented belief in the power of words to change things.
-- Philip Pettit, Princeton University and Australian National University

Kharkhordin argues that Russia has a tradition of ‘republican thought’ of a distinct genealogy, not that of the French Revolution but originating in the ancient world (especially Cicero) and then charting its own line through the Russian Decembrists of the early nineteenth century up to the present. These ideas were frequently submerged in the Russian history of authoritarianism, but survived through the medium of literature throughout the later nineteenth century and during the Soviet era. Recouped, they could form the basis for a new politics in Russia. This is original thinking of the first order, and enjoyable reading too.
-- Caroline Humphrey, University of Cambridge

This is a brilliant, highly original, and ambitious book. Kharkhordin sets out an agenda for the creation in Russia of a meaningful social order constituted around res publica, cleverly anchoring this vision in a deeply historically grounded analysis that marries multiple Russian intellectual traditions with classical elements of republican thought. The result is a philosophical foundation for an alternative way forward in Russian politics. Breaking new ground amidst rigid analytical paradigms and highly politicized debates, this is a remarkable achievement.
-- Jessica Pisano, The New School for Social Research

A startling synthesis of empirical data, conceptual and social history, and political theory. Most commentators examine Russian transformation through the prism of western models of liberalism. Kharkhordin, in contrast, derives a novel theory of Russian republicanism from observation of the practices, language, and histories of Russian activists, poets, politicians, thinkers, and entrepreneurs. This leads him to cautious optimism that new spheres of liberty and public life may yet emerge from areas in Russian society that typically escape our attention: practices of friendship, institutions of the commons, cultures of scientific innovation, and shared desires to remake the world.
-- Kevin M. F. Platt, University of Pennsylvania

Kharkhordin’s argument is novel and deeply grounded in the history of ideas and community in Russia…Sews together a set of complex ideas to demonstrate that liberal democracy is not the only option for Russian society to have representative governance.
-- Kathryn Stoner Russian Review

While most scholars took Cicero's Stoicism to be reflected in the content of his theories, th... more While most scholars took Cicero's Stoicism to be reflected in the content of his theories, this article tries to examine the 'how' rather than the 'what' of his statements. The article starts with the privileging of the verb in what the Stoics termed lekta, then considers how the term res publica fared in full lekta, pronounced by Cicero and his republican contemporaries (first and second sections). Then a Stoic theory of definition is analysed to elucidate an incorporeal quality of the res publica and stresses the particularity of Cicero's theoretical achievement (third and fourth sections). Section V compares the uses to which the term res publica was put in the speech acts of republican and imperial days, while Section VI evaluates the implications of the findings for our contemporary theory of the state.

Republicanism in Russia, 2018

The Russian Sociological Review, 2020

Luс Boltanski visited Russia in September, 2019, to support the publication of the Russian transl... more Luс Boltanski visited Russia in September, 2019, to support the publication of the Russian translation of his book Mysteries and Conspiracies: Detective Stories, Spy Novels and the Making of Modern Societies. It was his second visit to Russia, where he delivered three lectures. The first lecture was dedicated to Mysteries and Conspiracies. The second lecture was dedicated to his last book Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities, which he wrote with Arnaud Esquerre. The third lecture focused on the relationship between the critical sociology of the Pierre Bourdieu school, and the pragmatic sociology of critical capacity promoted by Luc Boltanski together with his long-time collaborator, Laurent Thevenot, within their Group of Political and Moral Sociology. In this review of the two different approaches, he revisited the theme of his 2009 book On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation which proclaimed the then-new theoretical synthesis. Mysteries and Conspiracies, published three years l...