DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL LOGIC OF CHINESE AND RUSSIAN HISTORICAL MYTHMAKING OF WWII

Abstract

Both President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin are waging wars on “historical nihilism” to eradicate rival interpretations of important historical events to enhance regime survival and to advance geopolitical ambitions. In contrast to the political significance and the far-reaching policy implications of historical issues in China and Russia, the politics of historical mythmaking is a disproportionately undertheorized and understudied area in political science. My dissertation addresses this gap by unpacking the political logic of Chinese and Russian official historical mythmaking. What the Chinese and Russian states gain from manipulating historical discourse? Under what conditions do the Chinese and Russian states intensify their historical mythmaking? What are the implications of their historical mythmaking, both in domestic politics and in international relations? These are the questions I seek to answer in this dissertation. I argue that perceived Chinese and Russian past righteousness offers powerful normative justifications for the paternalistic states and for the geopolitical ambitions of both nations. Through in-depth case studies using congruence analysis approach, this dissertation shows that Chinese and Russian states are more confident in exploiting the nation-building utilities of historical narratives when their rivals with strong claims over the past righteousness become weakened; meanwhile, Chinese and Russian perception of western deviation from orthodox interpretation of Yalta-Potsdam framework constitutes the essence of Chinese and Russian dissatisfactions towards the West in post-Cold War period; lastly, Chinese and Russian states’ mythmaking of WWII experiences, as a pushback against perceived “historical nihilism”, become intensified when they expect weakening future bargaining leverage. For practical implications, based on the insights from this dissertation I contend that lasting peace is not attainable without achieving historical synthesis among the world’s major great powers. Both Chinese and Russian obsession with historical truth and western ahistoricism are detrimental to a truly just international order.