ABSTRACT
Michael Mann (1986, p. 1) claims to add a new, previously under-explored, dimension to historical analysis by highlighting the role of power relationships in human history. “I have arrived at a distinctive, general way of looking at human societies that is at odds with models of society dominant within sociology and historical writing…. Societies are constituted of multiple overlapping and intersecting socio-spatial networks of power.” The emphasis on power and its structures, however, has long characterized writings about Russian history. The present chapter aims to outline various aspects of this discrepancy between Western and Russian historiography, its sources as well as some of its outcomes.
