Jean Lévesque | Université du Québec à Montréal (original) (raw)
Papers by Jean Lévesque
Etudes Internationales, 2001
Canadian Slavonic Papers, Jun 1, 2001
Marshall T. Poe. "A People Born to Slavery": Russia in Early Modern European Ethnograph... more Marshall T. Poe. "A People Born to Slavery": Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476-1748. Studies of the Harriman Institute. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. xi, 293 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Appendices. Bibliographies. Index. $49.95, cloth. In the wake of Larry Wolff's magisterial study of the intellectual creation of "Eastern" Europe by representatives of the European Enlightenment, it is now hard not to read early modem descriptions of Russia as anything but invention. Although most scholars now use a theoretical framework largely inspired by Edward Said's Orientalism to deconstruct the European image of "barbaric" Russia, Marshall Poe has chosen the option of deconstructing this image through a long and thorough document criticism. The result is an admirable study focussed on the origins of the concept of Russian tyranny as developed by "European"-read Western European-ethnographers, a category that includes both eye-witnesses of Russian political mores and scholars who reflected upon the early modem Russian political system without ever setting a foot on Muscovite soil. Poe, a visiting professor of modern Russian history at Harvard University, has already published an analytical bibliography of foreign descriptions of Muscovy and devoted many articles to Muscovite institutions and political culture. In the work under review, he attempts to elucidate the origins of the modern image of Russia through criticism of major ethnographical works that informed the European educated elite of the state and customs of so alien a land as Muscovy. As the author himself admits, his method is not new, nor is his object. As scholars such as Iuzefovich, Kappeler, Letsch and Samuel Baron did before him, Poe pays serious attention to what can be called the conditions of production of knowledge, or the factors determining the depth and quality of the information provided by foreigners in Russia. The sources used by Poe include either accounts by Europeans who were never in Muscovy or descriptions written by eyewitness observers of Russia, mainly diplomats and merchants who briefly visited the country, as well as theoretical works by European scholars who conceptualized "Russian tyranny" in political terms. Poe presents his analysis in seven chapters that overlap each other in a logical exposition of the origins and development of the image of Russia as tyranny. He commences by analyzing the earliest ethnographical descriptions of Russia, mostly Livonian and Polish sources, as well as accounts from Papal envoys who often subordinated propaganda concerns to the needs of presenting Russia as a potential ally in the struggle against the Turks and the Protestants. These latter therefore tended to present the Muscovite system in a better light than did Russia's neighbours. Poe offers his best example of source criticism in the two chapters on European ambassadors and residents and their role in the making of Russian tyranny. In addition to offering a rich exposition of perceptions of tyranny by Europeans in Russia, Poe also presents a clear explanation of the conditions that shaped these stereotypes. Clearly, foreigners took for granted the decorum and official formulas linked to Muscovite ceremonial, but they were rarely given the chance to achieve a deeper view of the functioning of the Russian government. …
Bulletin D Histoire Politique, 2014
Etudes Internationales, 2000
The Civilianization of War, 2018
This desperate statement from Latyshev, a member of the 3rd Company of the Kominternovksii distri... more This desperate statement from Latyshev, a member of the 3rd Company of the Kominternovksii district battalion of the Moscow Narodnoe Opolchenie (Soviet People's Militia or Levy), may surprise anyone who has studied the history of this volunteer force from the pages of its commemorative Soviet historiography. 1 Always stressing its voluntary character, several generations of Soviet historians have looked at the Narodnoe Opolchenie as a measure of the truly Soviet patriotism that swept the country at the war's outbreak. It has been seen as an early and genuine popular response to the German invasion of June 1941, which threatened the destruction of the Soviet state and the social and political order upon which it lay. This chapter examines the extent to which the rise of the People's Militia swept aside the civil-military divide. In doing so, it revises the Narodnoe Opolchenie's patriotic historiography, and with it the limits of the logic and ability of a modern regime, even in the most extreme circumstances, to make every civilian a soldier. Historians looking at the numerous Soviet paramilitary forces of the period have traced their origins to the popular response to the invasion, to provide a supplementary force to the Red Army. This alternative type of fighting force could be trained faster, could help prepare the defense of cities, and could participate in the combat to defend them. The Opolchenie was only one type of volunteer unit raised in the first months of the war. Others included workers', fighters', communist, and Komsomol battalions, anti-tank squads, and MPVO (Local Anti-Aircraft Defense). However, the Opolchenie was the largest of all these units and certainly more reliant on volunteers than communist-based battalions. The People's Militias of Moscow and Leningrad are better known because
Recherches sociographiques
Histoire Sociale-social History, 2015
Cahiers Du Monde Russe, 2006
C’est presque un lieu commun de dire que l’ouverture des archives sovietiques a grandement stimul... more C’est presque un lieu commun de dire que l’ouverture des archives sovietiques a grandement stimule les travaux portant sur la paysannerie sovietique, en particulier sous Stalin. D’une part, l’entreprise de publication de documents d’archives a ete et reste tres importante. Il suffit d’evoquer le travail monumental dirige par le regrette V. P. Danilov sur la tragedie des campagnes sovietiques, recemment arrive a terme avec la publication de la deuxieme partie du cinquieme et dernier tome, ou l...
This collection brings together the accounts of Europeans deported to the Soviet Gulag, understoo... more This collection brings together the accounts of Europeans deported to the Soviet Gulag, understood both as labor camps and forced relocation settlements. It is the result of a wonderful multimedia project that draws on the expertise of a dozen scholars from eight countries. Thanks to their work, we have the testimony of more than 160 individuals who were victims of the Soviet practice of forced deportation from 1939 to 1950. The project is multimedia in that it stems from a Radio France Internationale series that presented the interviews of deportees and an outstanding website. The latter allows the general public to trace the experience of deportees with the help of excerpts from filmed interviews, personal papers like photographs and diaries, as well as maps and official documents. This allows viewers to appreciate the individual experiences of deportees in their wider historical context. The volume under review is a companion to the radio series.
Marius Broekmeyer. Stalin, the Russians, and Their War. Trans. Rosalind Buck. Madison: University... more Marius Broekmeyer. Stalin, the Russians, and Their War. Trans. Rosalind Buck. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. xvi, 315 pp. Bibliography. Index. Paper.This is a very odd book to review. It is a translation of a study first published in Dutch in 1999 that does not really fit any of the usual categories that are used to classify the historical literature. It is neither a monograph, nor a collection of documents, much less a memoir or an essay. It has no central argument other than that the Great Patriotic War has been a tragedy for the Russian (read Soviet) people which is, in itself, nothing new. Moreover, while the book is to a large extent based on recently available Russian sources, it ignores most of the extensive Russian and Western scholarly literature. The sources Broekmeyer uses are mostly excerpts from literary memoirs, usually by well-known writers. This material is only supplemented by historical studies when there are no memoirs touching on the events in ques...
While most modern theorists of nationalism emphasize the role of intellectuals "creating nations ... more While most modern theorists of nationalism emphasize the role of intellectuals "creating nations out of nationalism" (Gellner, 1983) or imagining the community of nations (Anderson, 1991), I argue that another role of intellectuals may also be equally as valid: the role of the poet as adapting existing communities, and the trappings of those communities, into the shape and appearance of a modern nation. Using the examples of the Montenegrin poet Petar II Petrović Njegoš and the Albanian poet Gjergj Fishta and their epics The Mountain Wreath (1847) and The Highland Lute (1939), I argue the continuation of their literary epics to the oral epic traditions which formed an important basis for Montenegrin and Northern Albanian communities. In their literary epics Njegoš and Fishta imitate the language and themes of their communities' oral traditions, yet improve upon this tradition in their conception of the modern nation. They elevate the peasant language to the level of poetry and take stock of their communities' historical, cultural, and religious heritage, employing myths, symbols, customs, and values from the oral narrative tradition. However, the writers did not blindly follow the tradition from oral narratives; in many instances, they question the value of this society and suggest changes in the traditional society to develop a national culture. Far from being "unskilled or unethical psychologists" planting false memories in their communities (White, 2000), Njegoš and Fishta are competent composers who combine their communities' oral epic tradition, European literary movements, and their own individual poetic skills to forge a new conception of their community as a modern nation. Indeed in these national epics, Njegoš and Fishta present a higher aesthetic and ethical standard for their communities than the preceding oral epic and heroic traditions. While White (2000) accuses Romantic nationalists of invention and deception, their national epics capture an essence of authenticity for the nation that not only makes them infl uential in their own national literatures and cultures, but also gives them a place in great world literature, representing the highest poetic accomplishments of their respective nations. They rose to where their sovereign eagle sails, They kept their faith, their freedom, on the height, Chaste, frugal, savage, arm'd by day and night Against the Turk; whose inroad nowhere scales Their headlong passes, but his footstep fails, And red with blood the Crescent reels from fi ght Before their dauntless hundreds, in prone fl ight By thousands down the crags and thro' the vales. O smallest among peoples! rough rock-throne Of Freedom! warriors beating back the swarm Of Turkish Islam for fi ve hundred years, Great Tsernogora! never since thine own Black ridges drew the cloud and brake the storm Has breathed a race of mightier mountaineers.
Etudes Internationales, 2001
Canadian Slavonic Papers, Jun 1, 2001
Marshall T. Poe. "A People Born to Slavery": Russia in Early Modern European Ethnograph... more Marshall T. Poe. "A People Born to Slavery": Russia in Early Modern European Ethnography, 1476-1748. Studies of the Harriman Institute. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. xi, 293 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Appendices. Bibliographies. Index. $49.95, cloth. In the wake of Larry Wolff's magisterial study of the intellectual creation of "Eastern" Europe by representatives of the European Enlightenment, it is now hard not to read early modem descriptions of Russia as anything but invention. Although most scholars now use a theoretical framework largely inspired by Edward Said's Orientalism to deconstruct the European image of "barbaric" Russia, Marshall Poe has chosen the option of deconstructing this image through a long and thorough document criticism. The result is an admirable study focussed on the origins of the concept of Russian tyranny as developed by "European"-read Western European-ethnographers, a category that includes both eye-witnesses of Russian political mores and scholars who reflected upon the early modem Russian political system without ever setting a foot on Muscovite soil. Poe, a visiting professor of modern Russian history at Harvard University, has already published an analytical bibliography of foreign descriptions of Muscovy and devoted many articles to Muscovite institutions and political culture. In the work under review, he attempts to elucidate the origins of the modern image of Russia through criticism of major ethnographical works that informed the European educated elite of the state and customs of so alien a land as Muscovy. As the author himself admits, his method is not new, nor is his object. As scholars such as Iuzefovich, Kappeler, Letsch and Samuel Baron did before him, Poe pays serious attention to what can be called the conditions of production of knowledge, or the factors determining the depth and quality of the information provided by foreigners in Russia. The sources used by Poe include either accounts by Europeans who were never in Muscovy or descriptions written by eyewitness observers of Russia, mainly diplomats and merchants who briefly visited the country, as well as theoretical works by European scholars who conceptualized "Russian tyranny" in political terms. Poe presents his analysis in seven chapters that overlap each other in a logical exposition of the origins and development of the image of Russia as tyranny. He commences by analyzing the earliest ethnographical descriptions of Russia, mostly Livonian and Polish sources, as well as accounts from Papal envoys who often subordinated propaganda concerns to the needs of presenting Russia as a potential ally in the struggle against the Turks and the Protestants. These latter therefore tended to present the Muscovite system in a better light than did Russia's neighbours. Poe offers his best example of source criticism in the two chapters on European ambassadors and residents and their role in the making of Russian tyranny. In addition to offering a rich exposition of perceptions of tyranny by Europeans in Russia, Poe also presents a clear explanation of the conditions that shaped these stereotypes. Clearly, foreigners took for granted the decorum and official formulas linked to Muscovite ceremonial, but they were rarely given the chance to achieve a deeper view of the functioning of the Russian government. …
Bulletin D Histoire Politique, 2014
Etudes Internationales, 2000
The Civilianization of War, 2018
This desperate statement from Latyshev, a member of the 3rd Company of the Kominternovksii distri... more This desperate statement from Latyshev, a member of the 3rd Company of the Kominternovksii district battalion of the Moscow Narodnoe Opolchenie (Soviet People's Militia or Levy), may surprise anyone who has studied the history of this volunteer force from the pages of its commemorative Soviet historiography. 1 Always stressing its voluntary character, several generations of Soviet historians have looked at the Narodnoe Opolchenie as a measure of the truly Soviet patriotism that swept the country at the war's outbreak. It has been seen as an early and genuine popular response to the German invasion of June 1941, which threatened the destruction of the Soviet state and the social and political order upon which it lay. This chapter examines the extent to which the rise of the People's Militia swept aside the civil-military divide. In doing so, it revises the Narodnoe Opolchenie's patriotic historiography, and with it the limits of the logic and ability of a modern regime, even in the most extreme circumstances, to make every civilian a soldier. Historians looking at the numerous Soviet paramilitary forces of the period have traced their origins to the popular response to the invasion, to provide a supplementary force to the Red Army. This alternative type of fighting force could be trained faster, could help prepare the defense of cities, and could participate in the combat to defend them. The Opolchenie was only one type of volunteer unit raised in the first months of the war. Others included workers', fighters', communist, and Komsomol battalions, anti-tank squads, and MPVO (Local Anti-Aircraft Defense). However, the Opolchenie was the largest of all these units and certainly more reliant on volunteers than communist-based battalions. The People's Militias of Moscow and Leningrad are better known because
Recherches sociographiques
Histoire Sociale-social History, 2015
Cahiers Du Monde Russe, 2006
C’est presque un lieu commun de dire que l’ouverture des archives sovietiques a grandement stimul... more C’est presque un lieu commun de dire que l’ouverture des archives sovietiques a grandement stimule les travaux portant sur la paysannerie sovietique, en particulier sous Stalin. D’une part, l’entreprise de publication de documents d’archives a ete et reste tres importante. Il suffit d’evoquer le travail monumental dirige par le regrette V. P. Danilov sur la tragedie des campagnes sovietiques, recemment arrive a terme avec la publication de la deuxieme partie du cinquieme et dernier tome, ou l...
This collection brings together the accounts of Europeans deported to the Soviet Gulag, understoo... more This collection brings together the accounts of Europeans deported to the Soviet Gulag, understood both as labor camps and forced relocation settlements. It is the result of a wonderful multimedia project that draws on the expertise of a dozen scholars from eight countries. Thanks to their work, we have the testimony of more than 160 individuals who were victims of the Soviet practice of forced deportation from 1939 to 1950. The project is multimedia in that it stems from a Radio France Internationale series that presented the interviews of deportees and an outstanding website. The latter allows the general public to trace the experience of deportees with the help of excerpts from filmed interviews, personal papers like photographs and diaries, as well as maps and official documents. This allows viewers to appreciate the individual experiences of deportees in their wider historical context. The volume under review is a companion to the radio series.
Marius Broekmeyer. Stalin, the Russians, and Their War. Trans. Rosalind Buck. Madison: University... more Marius Broekmeyer. Stalin, the Russians, and Their War. Trans. Rosalind Buck. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. xvi, 315 pp. Bibliography. Index. Paper.This is a very odd book to review. It is a translation of a study first published in Dutch in 1999 that does not really fit any of the usual categories that are used to classify the historical literature. It is neither a monograph, nor a collection of documents, much less a memoir or an essay. It has no central argument other than that the Great Patriotic War has been a tragedy for the Russian (read Soviet) people which is, in itself, nothing new. Moreover, while the book is to a large extent based on recently available Russian sources, it ignores most of the extensive Russian and Western scholarly literature. The sources Broekmeyer uses are mostly excerpts from literary memoirs, usually by well-known writers. This material is only supplemented by historical studies when there are no memoirs touching on the events in ques...
While most modern theorists of nationalism emphasize the role of intellectuals "creating nations ... more While most modern theorists of nationalism emphasize the role of intellectuals "creating nations out of nationalism" (Gellner, 1983) or imagining the community of nations (Anderson, 1991), I argue that another role of intellectuals may also be equally as valid: the role of the poet as adapting existing communities, and the trappings of those communities, into the shape and appearance of a modern nation. Using the examples of the Montenegrin poet Petar II Petrović Njegoš and the Albanian poet Gjergj Fishta and their epics The Mountain Wreath (1847) and The Highland Lute (1939), I argue the continuation of their literary epics to the oral epic traditions which formed an important basis for Montenegrin and Northern Albanian communities. In their literary epics Njegoš and Fishta imitate the language and themes of their communities' oral traditions, yet improve upon this tradition in their conception of the modern nation. They elevate the peasant language to the level of poetry and take stock of their communities' historical, cultural, and religious heritage, employing myths, symbols, customs, and values from the oral narrative tradition. However, the writers did not blindly follow the tradition from oral narratives; in many instances, they question the value of this society and suggest changes in the traditional society to develop a national culture. Far from being "unskilled or unethical psychologists" planting false memories in their communities (White, 2000), Njegoš and Fishta are competent composers who combine their communities' oral epic tradition, European literary movements, and their own individual poetic skills to forge a new conception of their community as a modern nation. Indeed in these national epics, Njegoš and Fishta present a higher aesthetic and ethical standard for their communities than the preceding oral epic and heroic traditions. While White (2000) accuses Romantic nationalists of invention and deception, their national epics capture an essence of authenticity for the nation that not only makes them infl uential in their own national literatures and cultures, but also gives them a place in great world literature, representing the highest poetic accomplishments of their respective nations. They rose to where their sovereign eagle sails, They kept their faith, their freedom, on the height, Chaste, frugal, savage, arm'd by day and night Against the Turk; whose inroad nowhere scales Their headlong passes, but his footstep fails, And red with blood the Crescent reels from fi ght Before their dauntless hundreds, in prone fl ight By thousands down the crags and thro' the vales. O smallest among peoples! rough rock-throne Of Freedom! warriors beating back the swarm Of Turkish Islam for fi ve hundred years, Great Tsernogora! never since thine own Black ridges drew the cloud and brake the storm Has breathed a race of mightier mountaineers.