Historical sources of Russian imperial legitimation claims

Abstract Russia's war on Ukraine has given rise to a broad debate about Russian imperialism and colonialism. Yet despite Russia's significant imperial history, the field of International Relations has few detailed accounts of its distinguishing historical features. This article builds on existing work to unpack the varied attempts successive imperial projects made to legitimate Russia's rule over other populations and territories. Reconstructing Russia's imperial history, I show its claims to imperial legitimacy, past and present, varied widely. These claims were borrowed or otherwise acquired from an equally wide range of sources. They have tended to accumulate or sediment in Russian discursive practice. To illustrate this, I focus on the period that marked the height of Russian colonialism, the nineteenth century, showing a profusion of practices, styles and ways of speaking. I then argue Russia's wide-ranging claims to imperial legitimacy resurface in contemporary attempts to justify its expansionism. Recognizing the range of attempted imperial justifications helps analysts to better calibrate or specify critiques of Russian imperial ideas today.