The Challenge of «non-Europe» to Conceptual History

Abstract

In 1917 the Provisional Government of the Russian Empire orders to the soldiers to renew their oath of allegiance, not to the decayed Emperor (Gosudar) but rather to the State (Gosudarstvo). Many soldiers refuse to do so and proclaim: «If there is no more Gosudar, there is no Gosudarstvo». The elites understand: «If there is no Emperor, there is no State», even though the soldiers are saying «if there is no Master, there is no Master's domain». The immediate reason of this misunderstanding lies in the polisemy of the two Russian concepts, but its temporal structure is problematic. The historical-conceptual analysis discovers a temporal relationship among concepts and states of things (Sachegeschichte) which is not visible from the social history's point of view.

Keywords

• Koselleck
• Estado
• Rusia
• Soldados
• Fidelidad