
Translated from French Kashtanov Pavel
2021. 130 x 200 mm. Hardcover. 448 p.
ISBN 978-5-4448-1281-5
Annotation: The words "autocrat" (samoderzhets) and "impostor" (samozvanets) are similar in sound in the Russian language, but they have something more in common. The political culture in tsarist Russia was organized in such a way that legitimate rulers were often suspected of usurping power and impostors found support among the people. Since the beginning of the 17th century, hundreds of people have declared themselves kings and princes, and one of them officially ascended the throne. Imposture took root in all spheres of social and cultural life: numerous adventurers passed themselves off as princes, priests, scientists, and judges. After 1917, imposters appeared as revolutionaries, as "real" Lenins, as sons of Stalin, and so on. Why have there been so many impostors and what truths did their popular legitimacy express? With this book, Claudio Ingerflom becomes the first scholar to reconstruct the history of this phenomenon from tsarist times to the present day. The author explains how imposture became a political norm in Russia, and he shows how its elements are manifested in our contemporary realities.