Russia Under Western Eyes: From the Bronze Horseman to the Lenin Mausoleum

by Martin Malia

As the dust clears from the fall of Communism, will Western eyes see Russia, the unclaimed orphan of Western history or Russia as she truly is, a perplexing but undeniable member of the European family? A dazzling work of intellectual history by a world-renowned scholar, spanning the years from Peter the Great to the fall of the Soviet Union, this book gives us a clear and sweeping view of Russia not as an eternal barbarian menace but as an outermost, if laggard, member in the continuum of European nations. The Russian troika hurtles through these pages. The Spectre, modernity's belief in salvation by revolutionary ideology, haunts them. Alice's looking glass greets us at this turn and that. Throughout, Martin Malia's inspired use of these devices aptly conveys the surreality of the whole Soviet Russian phenomenon and the West's unbalanced perception of it. He shows us the usually distorted images and stereotypes that have dominated Western ideas about Russia since the eighteenth century. And once these emerge as projections of the West's own internal anxieties, he shifts his focus to the institutional structures and cultural forms Russia shares with her neighbors. Here modern Europe is depicted as an East-West cultural gradient in which the central and eastern portions respond to the Atlantic West's challenge in delayed and generally skewed fashion. Thus Russia, after two centuries of building then painfully liberalizing its Old Regime, in 1917 tried to leap to a socialism that would be more advanced and democratic than European capitalism . The result was a cruel caricature of European civilization, which mesmerized and polarized the West for most of this century. As the old East-West gradient reappears in genuinely modern guise, this brilliantly imaginative work shows us the reality that has for so long tantalized--and eluded--Western eyes.

Genres: Russia, History, Russian History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Benjamin]

Maybe Horowitz was right

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malia's "Russia under Western Eyes" is an erudite European and Russian intellectual history. Malia does a great job in bringing numerous ideas, figures, and events into context, tying them into how the West perceives Russia. The book interweaves between the West being welcoming, skeptical, or hostile to Russia as a member nation of Europe.

This work can probably serve as a good intellectual history on its own, outside of the main message of the book. You learn a good deal about conservative, liberal, Nietzschean, artistic, and Marxist philosophy and those who parroted each set of ideas. It doesn’t go in significant depth, which does a service to introductory readers. Malia discusses how these ideas shaped certain sentiments and attitudes toward Russia within the context of Russia’s conduct in European affairs.

Some of the more intriguing parts of the book for me were the discussions on the scarcity of Western literature in Russia, and on the Soviet era.

The criticism of Marxism is taken to a depth that was too out of topic, in my opinion, and such a criticism takes up a fair bit of the conclusion. That said, the central theme of Malis’s book seems to be that Russia, as a historically laggard member of Europe, was corrupted by the central tenets of Marxist philosophy which, when adopted, set itself in opposition to the development it took in connection to Europe. Therefore, the relationship it had to Russia was adversely disrupted.

This theme will stir controversy, but I think anyone will get some degree value from reading "Russia under Western Eyes." It’s a unique scholarly topic and Malia’s writing is clear and easy to follow. The organization is intuitive and the division of chapters into sub-sections make it easy to pause when needed. 4 stars feels appropriate. Overall a recommended read.