HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE
HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE

Interdisciplinary journal focusing primarily on sociological, political science and historical perspectives on the issue of long-term social processes and trends, modernization, globalization tendency and impacts.

The journal creates a broader platform for researches in the historical social sciences. Epistemological field is not strictly bounded, it is also meant to overlap with civilizationalism, cultural sociology and other related fields.

Historical Sociology is Open Access Journal and all published papers are available in the archive section. Open access journal means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Published by Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press, cooperated with Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague.

Reviewed scientific journal issued twice a year (in June and December).

The journal is abstracted and indexed in CEEOL, CEJSH, DOAJ, EBSCO, Emerging Sources Citation Index, ERIH PLUS, OAJI, recensio.net, Scopus, SSOAR, Ulrichsweb.

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HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE, Vol 9 No 2 (2017), 121–131

Social and Cultural Aspects of Self-appointment in Russia

Bohuslav Šalanda

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23363525.2017.42
published online: 07. 12. 2017

abstract

This essay is a study of self-appointed Czars, which is closely related to Russian political and historical traditions. In Russia, unique traditions of government existed, specific due to their use of historical references, as well as different utopias and ideals (for example a returning Czar-liberator). These are, in fact, particular symbols of power that were also present in the peasant uprisings of the Cossacks (led by Ivan Bolotnikov, Stenka Razin, Jemeljan Pugatshov and other lesser-known historical figures). On a social level, the Czar’s self-appointment is one of the established forms of antifeudal protest. On a political level, it represents a struggle for power. Its religious significance must also be emphasized. The behaviour of the self-appointed Czar also contains strong elements of carnival behaviour and is thus related to fictitious emperors in folk rituals and costumes. There were several waves of Czar appointments in Russian history, as represented by Dimitri (died in 1591) and Peter III. Part of the essay focuses on a self-appointed Czar from Montenegro, the adventurer Stepan the Small, who ruled succesfully between 1767–1773. He claimed to be Czar Peter III who in actual fact had been deposed and killed in 1762 on the orders of his wife Catherine II. The following is a part of larger research project about the reception of authority and power, from a transcultural point of view.

keywords: self-appointed czar; Stenka Razin; Jemeljan Pugatshov; Cossaks revolted; Stepan the Small

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Social and Cultural Aspects of Self-appointment in Russia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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ISSN: 1804-0616
E-ISSN: 2336-3525

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