Abstract

More than a decade after the breakdown of the Soviet Empire and the reunification of Europe historiographies and historical concepts still are very much apart. Though contacts became closer and Russian historians joined their Polish colleagues in the effort to take up western discussions and methodologies, there have been no common efforts yet for joint interpretations and no attempts to reach a common understanding of central notions and concepts. Exploring key concepts and different meanings in Western and East-European/Russian history, this volume offers an important contribution to such a comparative venture.

Manfred Hildermeier is Professor of East European History at the University of Göttingen; he was Fellow of the Historische Kolleg in Munich and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and Chairman of the Association of German Historians (2000-2004); his writings on Russian and Soviet history include Die Russische Revolution 1905-1920 (1989), Geschichte der Sowjetunion 1917-1991: Aufstieg und Niedergang des ersten sozialistischen Staates (1998), Die Sowjetunion 1917-1991 (2001), Die Russische Revolution (2004) and the edited volumes Stalinismus vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Neue Wege der Forschung (1998) and Europäische Zivilgesellschaft in Ost und West: Begriff, Geschichte, Chancen (2000).

“…a useful guide both to the paths that the German historical profession has taken in the last decade or so and to the ways in which one might think about the social, cultural, and political history of modern Europe.” • Journal of Contemporary History

“There is no doubt that this collection of essays will provide historians with important stimuli for bridging the gap between the historiographies of eastern and western Europe. Of paramount importance is the authors’ emphasis on historiography own contribution to the construction of the long-existing and powerful distinctions in European geographic and historical imaginations.” • Slavic Review