The arbitrary handling of their own national history serves Xi Jinping as well as Vladimir Putin to secure power and justify their politics.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping at their last meeting in Beijing on February 4, just before the start of the Ukraine war
“Those who control the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past.” This quote from George Orwell's world-famous novel “1984” describes in one sentence the importance of history for politics. Journalist Katie Stallard puts the quote in front of her recently published book “Dancing on Bones”. In it she describes how the powerful in Russia, China and North Korea use history for their purposes.
In an interview with DW, she says: “Authoritarian regimes know the power of history. It is a crucial tool in gaining popular support.” History generates legitimacy, is closely linked to the identity of citizens and has the advantage for authoritarian rulers that they can be manipulated as required. “Business successes come and go. History is what you can rely on,” says Stallard.
History as justification for the Ukraine war
The fact that a revisionist understanding of history can have deadly consequences is currently being demonstrated by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Even before the outbreak of war, Putin was among historians. In July 2021 he published an essay entitled “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”.
A historic Soviet-era T-34 tank also took part in this year's Victory Day
In the 2021 text, he accuses the West of “dangerous revisionism.” According to the historian Andreas Kappeler in an analysis for the magazine “Osteuropa”, Putin wants to counter this as an “all-knowing statesman” who knows the “one historical truth”. The truth, according to Putin, is that Russians and Ukrainians have always been a single intellectual entity. It is the West that is trying to turn Ukraine into an “anti-Russia”. Russia will never allow that and, if necessary, prevent it by force of arms. On May 9, when Russia celebrates victory over Nazi Germany in the tradition of the Soviet Union, Putin reiterated his point of view and went further, claiming that the West was planning an attack on Russia.
Putins Soviet worldview
The narrative of the supposed Russian-Ukrainian unity that the West is thwarting is part of a bipolar worldview and thinking in great power categories, as Kappeler notes. For Putin, only the powerful countries – such as Russia, the USA and China – play a role and “small” states like Ukraine have no agenda of their own. The great powers, in turn, are engaged in ideological competition, which is conducted by all means.
Even the dictator Stalin presented himself as a uniter of the peoples of the Soviet Union, which, however, was enforced with great brutality. Here in a painting by painter Boris W. Joganson entitled “Our wise leader, dear teacher”
This view of Putin, which Kappeler qualifies as a conspiracy theory in key points, is associated with ethnic nationalism and the thesis that the Nazis allegedly took power in Ukraine. A bridge is built via the supposed Nazis to what, according to Kappeler, is “the most important element of the Russian ideology of integration: the Soviet victory over Hitler's Germany.” Putin's world view is that of a secret service employee of the defunct Soviet Union.
Xi Jinping: helmsman of history
Many patterns of the ethno-nationalist view of history of Putin and his supporters in the Kremlin can also be found among Chinese officials. China wants to do better than the Soviet Union, which China's President Xi Jinping repeatedly cites as a warning example. The Soviet Union disintegrated because its leaders failed to eradicate the “historical nihilism” that undermined belief in the communist cause.
A souvenir shop in Beijing offers porcelain plates of Xi Jinping (left) and state founder Mao Zedong
Among other things, in order to avoid the fate of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) produced an updated official history of the party in 2021, heavily tailored to Xi Jinping. The Chinese People's Daily, the party's press organ, writes about China's leaders: “In this new era, Secretary-General Xi Jinping has helped us to understand the mechanisms of evolution and the laws of history at work in the long tortuous flow of time and the global storm . He made the right decision at every crossroads.” The CCP's narrative is spread in the press, social media, cinema, and computer games. Alternative points of view are illegal.
The party guarantees unity
The official party history determines what can be thought and written in China for years to come. At its core, it is about an “ideological framework that justifies ever larger and more far-reaching interventions by the party in politics, the economy and foreign policy,” according to former Australian Foreign Minister and China expert Kevin Rudd.
The CCP's power is historically justified: before the communists took power, China was weak and divided. The disunity allowed the West to humiliate the country. According to the subtext, only the CCP is able to unite the country and thus lead it back to its old strength.
With a lot of pomp and pathos, performers staged the 100-year history of the Chinese Communist Party in June 2021
The CCP is continuing what Chinese nationalists began in the 19th century, as evidenced by Bill Hayton in his book The Invention of China. At that time, the multi-ethnic China was retrospectively reinterpreted as a Han-Chinese uniform culture. The traditions of the Manchus, Mongols, and many other peoples were written out of history to make way for a vision of an always-unified China. Today, the Uyghurs and Tibetans who are put in re-education camps, whose language and culture are suppressed, feel the need for unity.
It is fitting that Xi Jinping, speaking to the CPC Central Committee in 2013 on the importance of history, quoted Confucian scholar Gong Zhishen as saying: “To destroy a country, one must first erase its history.” He meant this as a warning to question China's 5,000-year unity, which the CCP's version admittedly is a fiction. While it is true that there was a certain continuity of language and Confucian doctrine, it is false that Han Chinese culture would always have been dominant in what is now the territory of the People's Republic. In fact, the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was the last in which Han Chinese ruled. For centuries earlier, dynasties from other peoples, such as the Mongols, ruled most of what is now China. The last dynasty was founded by the Manchu and ruled from 1644 until the proclamation of the republic on January 1, 1912.
Katie Stallard: Dancing on Bones, History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea, Oxford University Press 2022.< /p>
In the will to design a unified history from which today's Russia and the People's Republic of China emerged without a break, we come full circle to Putin, who denies or distorts the history of Ukraine, to Russians and Being able to declare Ukrainians a people.
“Regained Territory”
There is also an obsession with territorial issues in both systems. Putin's historical testimonies largely ignore the crimes of the Stalin era, but deal extensively with the territory of the Soviet Union, which also included Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, the states of Central Asia and others.
China, for example, has been making historical arguments in the South China Sea for years. It declares a sea the size of the Mediterranean Sea to be its territory, citing questionable historical evidence. At the same time, it refuses to recognize the decision of the International Court of Arbitration, which declared all historical claims null and void.
< p>China's territorial claims in the South China Sea have been rejected by the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague
For Stallard, turning to territorial issues has two functions: On the one hand, it emphasizes the humiliations of the past: something has been taken away from us that is rightfully ours. And at the same time emphasizes the strength of the current leaders: We are taking back what is ours. “It's about defending your sovereignty, feeling strong and proud to be defending your country.”
No competing views
Even if there are substantive differences in the development of the historical narratives in Russia and China (e.g. China's more pronounced personality cult around Xi), the patterns are clear. Both systems assert a unity and continuity that has never existed. Anyone who questions them in Russia or China faces severe punishment. They construct an external enemy – the West – from which only they – Putin or Xi – can protect the nation and link history with territorial claims. Stallard writes: “The will to manipulate history for political purposes is not found only in authoritarian systems.” But only authoritarian systems take action against dissenting opinions.
Collaborated by Hao Gui.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
Chinese Emperor as Shaman
The later Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan was born on September 23, 1215 in Mongolia. He was a grandson of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, which consisted of four parts: Russian, Central Asian, Persian and Chinese. This portrait was created shortly after Kublai's death in 1294. The white clothing symbolizes the shamanic religion of his homeland.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
United China
Kublai Khan chose “Da Yuan” (Great Beginning) from the Chinese “Book of Changes” as the name for his reign. Under his Mongol rule, China was ruled by a foreign dynasty for the first time in its history. But as early as 1350 – almost 60 years after Kublai's death – the united kingdom disintegrated into rival centers of power. The Ming dynasty was then able to establish itself in 1368.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
Calm before the storm
After conquering northern China and moving the capital of the Mongol Empire to present-day Beijing, Kublai went on to conquer the Song dynasty-held south. In 1276 the Song capital of Lin'an (Hangzhou) fell. This Song Dynasty (circa 1100) silk painting shows preparations for a festival.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
Decisive battle at sea
Although outnumbered by at least ten, the Mongols won at the Naval Battle of Yamen, south of Guangzhou (Canton) against the Song Dynasty navy, China's first permanent naval force. More than 1000 ships and 200,000 soldiers were involved in the battle. The illustration shows a Song warship with a catapult on deck.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
Death at sea
The last emperor of the Song dynasty, Song Bing, was only eight years old. According to a Mongolian report, after the Mongol conquerors had won the naval battle of Yamen, he was killed by an official of the imperial court by jumping into the sea in 1279.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
End of the centuries-old civil service examination
The famous civil service examination, which in principle allowed every Chinese to rise to the highest state offices in the Song period, was initially suspended under Kublai and his successors. Offices now became hereditary and served the Mongols to maintain social, political, and ethnic differences in society.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
Masters of the Yuan Dynasty
Freed from the burden of official duties, many scholars in the Yuan Dynasty devoted themselves to the fine arts: Huang Gongwang was one of the “Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty”, here is a detail from his famous painting “Life in the Fuchun Mountains”. The masters were not interested in naturalism, but, according to Huang Gongwang, in capturing the inner “pattern” of things.
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
“Divine Winds” came to the aid of Japan
The seemingly indomitable Mongol armies of Kublai Khan failed twice in their attempts to conquer Japan: in 1274 and 1281. Among others , because the conquerors lost a large part of their men and supplies in storms (kamikaze or “divine winds”).
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From Song to Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
The “miracle” of paper money
Kublai Khan oversees the payment of merchants by his officials, an illustration from a deluxe edition of Marco Polo's 'Book of Miracles'. Commercial and administrative efficiency were priorities under Kublai, including excellent courier services – and paper money. Marco Polo was deeply impressed by this new payment system.
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From Song zu Yuan – China under Kublai Khan
Marco Polo made Kublai Khan immortal
The Venetian merchant's son Marco Polo stayed in Kublai Khan's China for almost a quarter of a century, from 1271 to 1295. His travelogue, originally entitled “Division of the World” or “Wonders of the World”, was soon translated into almost all European languages. He painted the court of Kublai Khan in bright colors and praised him as a just and capable ruler.