The foreign policy of Russia in 1917: From the conflict around political slogans to the disputes in historio­graphy and the conflict sources

T.M. Bohn ^a*, S.Yu. Malysheva ^b**, A.A. Salnikova ^b***

^a Justus Liebig University, Giessen, 35390 Germany

^b Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: ^*Thomas.Bohn@geschichte.uni-giessen.de, ^**Svetlana.Malysheva@kpfu.ru, ^***Alla.Salnikova@kpfu.ru

Received March 2, 2019

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2019.2-3.208-222

For citation: Bohn T.M., Malysheva S.Yu., Salnikova A.A. The foreign policy of Russia in 1917: From the conflict around political slogans to the disputes in historiography and the conflict sources. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2019, vol. 161, no. 2–3, pp. 208–222. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2019.2-3.208-222. (In Russian)

Abstract

The problems of peace and war and foreign policy in general became the main issues in the development of the situation and in the fate of the government in Russia in 1917. The confrontation on foreign policy issues within the Provisional Government and with the Petrograd Council moved from the reality to the historiographic level. The paper defines the main stages in the study of this problem in the Soviet and post-Soviet historiography, shows the specifics of each of these stages. Special attention was paid to the period of 1960s–1980s, the time of acute discussions, during which a number of odious historiographical clichés (about the “imperialist”, “anti-national” nature of the foreign policy of the Provisional Government, its dependence on the Anglo-French capital, etc.) were rejected, flexibility and independence of the foreign policy of the Provisional Government were shown, its focus on defending the interests of Russia was revealed. The influence of historiographical discussions on the development and modernization of Soviet historiography, on the creation of assumptions for qualitatively new research approaches that emerged at present was investigated. One of the most pressing problems in the history of Russia's foreign policy in 1917 – the problem of “conflict” of information contained in sources of different types and different origins – was examined in detail. The specificity of source basis formation for the problem was traced. The reasons for gaps in the sources were identified, and ways to overcome them were demonstrated.

Keywords: Revolution of 1917, Provisional Government, foreign policy, historiography, historiographic discussions, historical sources, conflictogenic source information

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