Call for contributions: a special issue of 'Journal of Applied History' on Weaponizing History in the Russo-Ukrainian War

The Journal of Applied History is producing a special edition on Weaponizing History in the Russo-Ukrainian War, with guest editors Prof. Breatrice de Graaf and Prof. Lien Verpoest (Leuven University). For this, the Journal calls for contributions until 15 June.

Historical claims, narratives, myths and other distortions of the past have been at the heart of the build-up to the current war and its legitimation and contestation. A Nietzschean monumentalist instrumentalization of history stands out. The past is mined by Russian president Vladimir Putin to construct a narrative of Russian greatness: it is abused to glorify political leadership by positioning the president as the heir of the czars. The past is instrumentalized to support geopolitical claims on Ukrainian territory as historically ‘belonging’ to Russia and to legitimize a battle against NATO imperialism. Historical myths form the disturbing foundation of xenophobic rhetoric.

Critical reflection

All of this and more calls for a critical reflection on the role history and claims on and about the past play in the current war.
The editors invite a broad range of contributions, ranging from shorter (1,500-2,500 words) interventions and review essays to slightly longer (4,000) research papers. We welcome submissions on a broad range of topics, including, but not limited to:

Discussions and deconstructions of historical narratives and myths:

• Moscow/Russia as the Third Rome;
• Instrumentalizing narratives on Slavic brotherhood
• (Strategic narratives on) Ukraine and the Nazi past;
• The role of the Orthodox church in legitimizing Russian “imperial” politics
• Ukrainian nationalism and its relations to “Europeanism”
• The role of the Cossack Hetmanate in Ukrainian nationhood

Discussions on historical path dependencies and analogies relating to the war

• Putin as a new czar vs. Russia as an empire in decline;
• Appeasement vs. a new Cold War;
• The Russian discourse of humiliation
• Historians confronting IR/Realist theories;
• How to historicize abuses: war crimes, ‘denazification’, missed opportunities, ‘broken promises’.

For more information, download the Call for contributions below.