Matthias Battis | University of Vienna (original) (raw)
Papers by Matthias Battis
Europe-Asia Studies, 2023
This article argues that nationalities policy under Lenin and Stalin, its commitment to territori... more This article argues that nationalities policy under Lenin and Stalin, its commitment to territorial autonomy notwithstanding, effectively put into practice the Austro-Marxist vision of a socialist multinational state and party that patronised national culture to assuage separatist tendencies. Highlighting the ideological common ground between Habsburg remedies for imperial disintegration along national lines and Soviet policies for imperial integration along the same lines, it argues that the Bolsheviks' Marxist premise of promoting national diversity and culture to defuse nationalism was prefigured and informed by the Austro-Marxist premise of making national cultural autonomy the hallmark rather than the antithesis of socialism.
Nationalities Papers, 2022
Ab Imperio, 2016
This paper examines the intellectual genealogy of a central tenet of contemporary nationalist dis... more This paper examines the intellectual genealogy of a central tenet of contemporary nationalist discourse in Tajikistan, namely the Aryan myth, i.e. the notion of the Tajiks’ Aryan descent. It sheds light on its origins and on its transformation during the late imperial and early Soviet periods from a narrative legitimizing Russian imperial rule to a myth of Tajik national identity. It argues that Tajikistan’s imagining and formation as a nation state is inextricably linked to the Aryan myth and to the way it was articulated by imperial scholars-turned-Soviet orientalists, such as Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Semenov (1873-1958). Taking the microhistorical perspective of a single life allows this paper to highlight the local Central Asian dynamics of the various imperial situations that paved the way and accompanied Bolshevik nationalities policy. It also enables representing Semenov as an individual scholar who managed to exploit the leeway for action in accordance with his own research interests (rather than as a mere instrument of the Tsarist and Soviet states in Central Asia). This paper suggests that the process of delimitating borders and identities in 1920s Central Asia was influenced not only by senior Bolsheviks and leading Central Asian Muslim political actors but also by the voices and scholarship of Russian orientalists.
Russian Orientalists participated—often in a close but precarious relationship with the state—in ... more Russian Orientalists participated—often in a close but precarious relationship with the state—in the transformation of Central Asia from a tsarist colony into part of what Francine Hirsch has called an “Empire of Nations.” One of them was the former tsarist colonial clerk Aleksandr Semenov (1873–1958), who together with such prominent representatives of the region’s Persian-speaking elites as Sadriddin Ayni or Bobojon Ghafurov, and with the support of his academic mentors, such as Vasilii Bartol’d and Sergei Ol’denburg, effectively—albeit somewhat reluctantly—lobbied for the official recognition of the Persian/Tajik language and of Tajikistani statehood. The study of their cooperation shows how Central Asian cultural heritage was researched and preserved, but also how it was reinvented in national terms and codified; and how these processes were negotiated between local intellectuals, scholars and the state.
Ober Ost i niametskaia akupatsyia Garodni u Pershuiu susvetnuiu vainu pavodle Dzennika Kurta Klamrota
Book Reviews by Matthias Battis
Europe-Asia Studies, 2023
This article argues that nationalities policy under Lenin and Stalin, its commitment to territori... more This article argues that nationalities policy under Lenin and Stalin, its commitment to territorial autonomy notwithstanding, effectively put into practice the Austro-Marxist vision of a socialist multinational state and party that patronised national culture to assuage separatist tendencies. Highlighting the ideological common ground between Habsburg remedies for imperial disintegration along national lines and Soviet policies for imperial integration along the same lines, it argues that the Bolsheviks' Marxist premise of promoting national diversity and culture to defuse nationalism was prefigured and informed by the Austro-Marxist premise of making national cultural autonomy the hallmark rather than the antithesis of socialism.
Nationalities Papers, 2022
Ab Imperio, 2016
This paper examines the intellectual genealogy of a central tenet of contemporary nationalist dis... more This paper examines the intellectual genealogy of a central tenet of contemporary nationalist discourse in Tajikistan, namely the Aryan myth, i.e. the notion of the Tajiks’ Aryan descent. It sheds light on its origins and on its transformation during the late imperial and early Soviet periods from a narrative legitimizing Russian imperial rule to a myth of Tajik national identity. It argues that Tajikistan’s imagining and formation as a nation state is inextricably linked to the Aryan myth and to the way it was articulated by imperial scholars-turned-Soviet orientalists, such as Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Semenov (1873-1958). Taking the microhistorical perspective of a single life allows this paper to highlight the local Central Asian dynamics of the various imperial situations that paved the way and accompanied Bolshevik nationalities policy. It also enables representing Semenov as an individual scholar who managed to exploit the leeway for action in accordance with his own research interests (rather than as a mere instrument of the Tsarist and Soviet states in Central Asia). This paper suggests that the process of delimitating borders and identities in 1920s Central Asia was influenced not only by senior Bolsheviks and leading Central Asian Muslim political actors but also by the voices and scholarship of Russian orientalists.
Russian Orientalists participated—often in a close but precarious relationship with the state—in ... more Russian Orientalists participated—often in a close but precarious relationship with the state—in the transformation of Central Asia from a tsarist colony into part of what Francine Hirsch has called an “Empire of Nations.” One of them was the former tsarist colonial clerk Aleksandr Semenov (1873–1958), who together with such prominent representatives of the region’s Persian-speaking elites as Sadriddin Ayni or Bobojon Ghafurov, and with the support of his academic mentors, such as Vasilii Bartol’d and Sergei Ol’denburg, effectively—albeit somewhat reluctantly—lobbied for the official recognition of the Persian/Tajik language and of Tajikistani statehood. The study of their cooperation shows how Central Asian cultural heritage was researched and preserved, but also how it was reinvented in national terms and codified; and how these processes were negotiated between local intellectuals, scholars and the state.
Ober Ost i niametskaia akupatsyia Garodni u Pershuiu susvetnuiu vainu pavodle Dzennika Kurta Klamrota