You raise a good point here. Tsarist Russia was definitely an empire in the traditional sense, but when Lenin wrote Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism he described the new method of imperialism that was forming out of capitalism, the method of exporting financial capital to colonies in order to generate super profits and buy off the domestic working class. That’s the form of imperialism that exists today and which Russia does not conform to, but modern Russia also doesn’t fit the older model of imperialism which Tsarist Russia did. That older kind of imperialism, distinct from the form Lenin describes, doesn’t even really exist anymore as global capitalism has developed to the point that it can’t be supported… I think something important to note here is that Tsarist Russia wielded it’s power in service of reaction, crushing revolutions across Europe to maintain the older status quo economic and political model in the face of historical progress.
Today, the “new” form of imperialism that Lenin laid out IS the status quo, so the US, it’s allies and institutions are both 1) perfectly exemplary of imperialism as described by Lenin in ItHSoC AND 2) the hammer of reaction which seeks to crush historical progress toward a new economic order anywhere it pops up, like Tsarist Russia once was in Europe.
Modern Russia, conversely, is neither of those things, which is why describing modern Russia as imperialist doesn’t fit in either sense.
Did it fit Tsarist Russia?
You raise a good point here. Tsarist Russia was definitely an empire in the traditional sense, but when Lenin wrote Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism he described the new method of imperialism that was forming out of capitalism, the method of exporting financial capital to colonies in order to generate super profits and buy off the domestic working class. That’s the form of imperialism that exists today and which Russia does not conform to, but modern Russia also doesn’t fit the older model of imperialism which Tsarist Russia did. That older kind of imperialism, distinct from the form Lenin describes, doesn’t even really exist anymore as global capitalism has developed to the point that it can’t be supported… I think something important to note here is that Tsarist Russia wielded it’s power in service of reaction, crushing revolutions across Europe to maintain the older status quo economic and political model in the face of historical progress.
Today, the “new” form of imperialism that Lenin laid out IS the status quo, so the US, it’s allies and institutions are both 1) perfectly exemplary of imperialism as described by Lenin in ItHSoC AND 2) the hammer of reaction which seeks to crush historical progress toward a new economic order anywhere it pops up, like Tsarist Russia once was in Europe.
Modern Russia, conversely, is neither of those things, which is why describing modern Russia as imperialist doesn’t fit in either sense.