The authors aim to bring to a wider audience an insight into identity formation in one of the largest multi-national countries in the world. Twentieth-century politics have all too often obscured the complexity of identity formation in Russia, which, arguably, has proved detrimental to our greater understanding of identity processes at a theoretical level.

Shaping of Identities aims to bring into sharper focus the process by which a multitude of identities began to emerge in the Russian empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The book also reviews a series of case-studies of identity formation in Russia based on religion, historical beliefs, language, local culture, and various combinations of these factors.

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Kansainvälisen tutkijakaartin artikkelit tarkastelevat identiteetin muotoutumista Venäjällä, yhdessä maailman suurimmista monikansallisista valtioista. Teoksessa kuvaillaan, miten identiteettien moninaisuus alkoi näkyä jo Venäjän keisarikunnan aikana, ja miten virallisen venäläisyyden määrittely vaikutti tsaari Nikolai I:n aikana. Kirjoituksissa peilataan myös sitä, miten Venäjällä on opittu elämään eri kansallisuuksien, uskonnollisten käsitysten sekä venäläisyyden ja ei-venäläisyyden käsitteiden kanssa.

Teoksen pääosan muodostavat tapaustutkimukset identiteetin muotoutumisesta, joka pohjautuu muun muassa uskontoon ja uskomuksiin, kieleen ja paikalliskulttuuriin.

This volume is a collection of thirty-five essays by scholars from Russia, North Ossetia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, the United States, and Great Britain. The authors aim to bring to a wider audience an insight into identity formation in one of the largest multi-national countries in the world. Twentieth-century politics have all too often obscured the complexity of identity formation in Russia, which, arguably, has proved detrimental to our greater understanding of identity processes at a theoretical level.

Shaping of Identities aims to bring into sharper focus the process by which a multitude of identities began to emerge in the Russian empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The volume is in five parts. Part 1 ("Self-discovery ") sketches how Russia attempted to define itself through exploration of its own lands, and sought to come to terms with the multi-ethnic character of its peoples, their religious beliefs, and concepts of "Russianness " and "non-Russianness ". Part 2 ("Nationality") focuses on the shaping of an "official Russian identity" by Count Sergei Uvarov (Minister of National Education) on behalf of Tsar Nicholas I, and the problems which this raised. Parts 3, 4 and 5 are a series of case-studies of identity formation in Russia based on religion, historical beliefs, language, local culture, and various combinations of these factors.