Mobilizing the Russian Nation: Patriotism and Citizenship in the First World War

 Why was Russia defeated in the First World War? Melissa K. Stockdale challenges the widespread belief that lack of popular patriotism was a major cause of Russia’s military implosion in 1917.  Exploring massive efforts by state, religious, and civic entities to craft inspiring patriotic narratives, and popular responses to them, she demonstrate the powerful crystallization of patriotism, nationalism, and citizenship in Russia over the course of a devastating total war.   

Melissa K. Stockdale is a Brian and Sandra O’Brien Presidential Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, and member of the editorial board of the international scholarly series Russia’s Great War and Revolution. Her books include Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880-1918, and the edited volumes Space, Place and Power in Modern Russia: Essays in the New Spatial History (with Mark Bassin and Christopher Ely) and Russian Culture in War and Revolution, 1914-1918 (with Murray Frame, Boris Kolonitskii, and Steven Marks).  She has written articles and book chapters on women and war, the press in war, memorializing soldiers, and Russian liberalism and nationalism. 

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the George Washington University History Department for their support.