Since February 2022, Russia has waged a full-scale war against Ukraine that combines conquest, mass atrocities, terrorism, and settler colonialism. It follows more than a decade of Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which began with the seizure of Crimea and the intervention in Ukraine’s eastern regions. The war has been enabled by the “discourses of Russian supremacy and Ukrainian ‘inferiority’”, yet the colonial character of Russia’s war often remains obscured. The invasion of Ukraine is, of course, not the first war of aggression waged by contemporary Russia, the Soviet Union, or the Russian Empire. What is unusual about it is that it takes place in an era when blatant land grabs are universally condemned: Russia has attacked an independent, universally recognised country. Yet Russian atrocities against nations and peoples that lacked statehood were no less tragic, such as the massacres of Turkmens by the Russian Empire, Qazaqs during the Soviet era, and Chechens in the post-Cold War era – under both Yeltsin and Putin. The list of examples is much longer.

Still, Russia continues to claim “imperial innocence”. Prime Minister Lavrov has maintained that Russia “has not stained itself with the bloody crimes of colonialism”. However, the reluctance to recognise Russian colonialism runs deeper than susceptibility to Russian propaganda. This essay examines Russia’s imperial past and present, explores how it has been obscured, and suggests implications for the international studies discipline.

Colonialism is typically associated with European powers, but Russia – partly in Europe geographically and a key diplomatic player on the continent – is often left out from those discussions. However, both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union were no less brutal than other empires, committing mass atrocities that are recognised as genocide by one or several states, including the massacres of Muslim Circassians and Holodomor in Ukraine. Furthermore, the Russian Empire had significant aspirations but limited capacity to pursue colonisation of Africa. Thwarted in its ambition, it treated the territories it had acquired through overland expansion as colonies by drawing on European orientalist discourses.

While the notion and practice of colonialism has many manifestations, its distinguishing features include the coloniser’s self-perceived superiority, the “civilising mission”, and dehumanisation. Superiority is the belief that some peoples are more “advanced” or “deserving” than others. Contemporary Russian colonialism is rooted in the same premise: the idea that Russia is the natural “leader” of all Slavic nations – or possibly all nations once under the Russian or Soviet rule – and that Russian culture is superior to the culture of its neighbours.

The notion of “advancement” has been traditionally associated with modernity, rationality, and Christianity. Russia has similarly relied on the discourse of modernisation to justify its claim to “great power” status, and some Russians have denigrated Ukraine for allegedly being poor and low-skilled. Russia has stressed the “rationality” of its rulers and people while portraying Ukrainians as sentimental and unsophisticated – a “singing and dancing tribe” as opposed to........

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