Yuliy I. Drobyshev The Mongolian Imperial Idea in the Writings of Russian Historians Before 1991

Abstract
The article highlights the history of approaches to the study of the Mongolian imperial ideology of the 13th–14th centuries in Russian science. As a separate area of research, this topic has not yet emerged either in our country or abroad at the time covered by the scope of the article. Nevertheless, historians, philologists, and representatives of other disciplines have worked on various aspects of this issue. In particular, quite a lot of attention was paid to the correct translation and interpretation of the initial phrase of the khan’s yarlyks and ultimatums «By the power of Eternal Heaven!», which postulates the source of legitimization of the supreme power of the Mongol khans not only over their people, but also over the whole earth. V.V. Grigoriev was the first to come to a clear understanding of the fundamental principles of the Mongolian imperial doctrine in the early 1840s, but for a number of reasons, further development of this problem was delayed for a long time. During the years of Soviet power, under the conditions of the undivided dominance of the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the world historical process and as a result of the assertion of the unconditional priority of socio-economic factors over ideological ones, the study of the nomadic world faced great difficulties. The Mongolian empire found itself on the periphery of interests of Russian science. The role of Genghis Khan in the empire creation was downplayed, and the formation of the empire was explained by the feudalization of the Mongolian society. The internal and foreign policy of the Mongols was often interpreted simplistically, it was usually based only on the thirst for profit of the khan-noyon elite, and attempts were made to prove that simple Mongolian shepherds did not need predatory and aggressive wars, and they were forced to rob and kill. Genghis Khan himself was credited with the desire to enslave the whole world, which, however, is not reported by any synchronous source. These ideas, which arose back in the 1930s, dominated Russian historical science until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Keywords:

Mongol Empire; Imperial Ideology; Genghis Khan; Eternal Heaven; Russian Historians; Soviet Historians

For citation:
Drobyshev Yu. I. The Mongolian imperial idea in the writings of Russian historians before 1991 // Historical Reporter. 2026. Vol. 56. P. 10–71. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2025.2026.56.002

Yuliy I. Drobyshev

C.Sc. (History), Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow, Russian Federation.

e-mail: altanus@mail.ru

ORCID: 0000-0002-9318-4560

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