Vikings in the East by Martyn Whittock: Well-researched account let down by attempt to make sense of Putin's invasion
Vikings in the East: From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin, the Origins of a Contested Legacy in Russia and Ukraine
Author
:
Martyn Whittock
ISBN-13
:
978-1785909054
Publisher
:
Biteback Publishing
Guideline Price
:
£22
Martyn Whittock, a prolific and eclectic
British
historian, author of several books on Vikings and the old Norse world, focuses here on a lesser-known aspect of Viking history. He examines the eastward expeditions of
Swedish
warrior-traders, known as Varangians, in the ninth and tenth centuries that ultimately led to the establishment of the Kievan Rus in Kyiv in 988, with the coronation of Vladimir the Great.
Vladimir was in the line of the Rurikid dynasty, which would rule Russia until it died out with Ivan the Terrible's childless son Feodor I in 1598.
The Kievan Rus underpins the claims by
Russian
nationalists, including
Vladimir Putin
, on
Ukraine
, even though Kyiv and Muscovy developed in largely separate ways when Kyiv went into decline after being sacked by the Mongols in 1240. At various times in Russian history, under the tsars and especially under Soviet rule, the Viking origins have been either championed or rejected, depending on the powers-that-be's attitude to Russia's Germanic neighbours to the west.
Whittock offers a brisk and well-documented account of the early Viking settlements that used the network of rivers in the Volga basin to trade as far afield as Constantinople and Abbasid Baghdad, bringing amber, furs and slaves east in exchange for silver, large hordes of which have been discovered in Sweden, particularly on the Baltic island of Gotland.
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Much of the second half of the book is given over to the ideological battles fought over the Viking influence in establishing the first Russian state.
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The book's major flaw, however, is the centrality given to these ideological battles as a rationale for the invasion of Ukraine, which seems rather beside the point. Vladimir Putin's succession of intellectual justifications – including smearing Ukrainians as Nazis – have been so patently untrue that any attempt to place them in a discursive lineage is rather pointless, no matter how deep a story, in Whittock's words, it might be.
If the origins of the Kievan Rus weren't up to the task for Putin, he would just invent another excuse. Vikings in the East, engaging as it is as an account of the common origins of Russia and Ukraine, is far less interesting as an analysis of contemporary Russian imperialist ambitions.
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34 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
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Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
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Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
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Photograph: Seamus Murphy He eventually returned to Russia in 2017 and 2019 – this time to photograph locations in Moscow and in the military and nationalistic heartlands of the Urals – with that thought specifically in mind. 'I'd covered the rise of Trump in America, been to his rallies, seen the way he seemed to revere Putin and his power, the disconcerting bromance of it all,' he says. 'And I realised, s**t, I've really got to follow through with this.' Since then, of course, and particularly during the current authoritarian Trump presidency, the idea has only become increasingly more timely and geopolitically germane. The result is Strange Love, the culmination of an almost 20-year project and the latest work from the award-winning 65-year-old. 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Even the cover image of a five-pointed star is suitably ambiguous: is it a Soviet communist red star or a rusting symbol of the Lone Star State of Texas? 'Sometimes it's obvious which country you're in: there's an American flag; or a sign in Cyrillic; or a black person, which makes it more likely to be the US,' he says. 'But I'm hoping that, while each picture is a story in itself, the book is also an accumulation and a journey, that as you go through you get lost in the narrative, in the pictures and in the moments.' Strange Love: a woman in Etna, Pennsylvania, US. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Strange Love: a man in Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Island, Russia. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Murphy is talking from Nablus, in the West Bank, where he is again revisiting locations in a complex and fractured state – this time in the city in which in 2004 he both took stills for the Oscar-nominated Palestinian feature film Paradise Now and chronicled daily life during the second intifada. A desire to record, re-examine and return to the world's major conflict zones is characteristic of his acclaimed career. He often takes the long view. An unusually versatile and widescreen photographer whose work embraces portraiture, reportage, conflict, war, landscape, urban, street and social-issue images, both in colour and black and white, and in still and moving images, Murphy has received seven World Press Photo awards for his work in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Peru, Britain and Ireland. He has published four books, including In the Republic, a personal odyssey before the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Strange Love: a motel room in Detroit, Michigan, US. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Strange Love: a woman in Blagoveshchensk, Amur Oblast, Russia. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Murphy has also collaborated with PJ Harvey on the albums Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project, leading to music films, multimedia exhibitions and the book The Hollow of the Hand. He has made short films for Channel 4, the New Yorker and Unicef, and received an Emmy nomination for A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan, a film based on his photographic work from 14 trips to the country. His most recent feature documentary is The Peculiar Sensation of Being Pat Ingoldsby, an exploration of 'the life, work and imagination of the maverick Irish poet', who died earlier this year. [ Pat Ingoldsby obituary: Ringmaster of a surreal circus that sprang fully formed from his own imagination Opens in new window ] 'Regardless of medium or subject, I'm always striving for intimacy and a certain poetic realism,' he says. 'I'm not trying to sentimentalise or beautify what I'm seeing. I am trying to record the moment in a hopefully truthful, dignified and creative way. The reason I love novels is that you get to experience another person's reality. Photography is the same. The search is about showing and sharing a glimpse of what life and humanity are all about.' Murphy was born in Orsett, in Essex, southeast England. His father, also called Seamus, was brought up in Claremorris, Co Mayo, and studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Dublin before leaving in the late 1940s to work in the newly founded NHS. His mother, Francesca Fitzgerald – 'a great character, very refined, very creative' – was raised in England by Irish parents. Strange Love: Detroit, Michigan, US. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Strange Love: Blagoveshchensk, Amur Oblast, Russia. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Seamus was the youngest of six children, four girls and two boys, who were all born in England. When he was six months old the family moved to Ireland, eventually settling in Glasnevin Avenue in north Dublin. His father ran a large GP surgery in nearby Finglas; he also owned and trained racehorses. When Murphy was 14 three Ulster Volunteer Force car bombs exploded in Dublin ; together with a fourth bomb, in Monaghan, the attack killed 33 civilians and injured almost 300. 'I would come home on the bus from my school, Terenure College, and was in the centre of town around the time everything was happening. I think it introduced me to the idea of such things as news, current affairs, history, politics, violence and danger. I'd sort of discovered what I wanted to do with my life.' [ 'We hadn't heard from Mammy. Where was she? Then all hell broke loose': The Dublin and Monaghan bombings 50 years on Opens in new window ] Settling on becoming a journalist, he won a place at Trinity College Dublin to study English but left soon afterwards to enrol on a more practical three-year communications course at Rathmines College. Coming of age 'in Taliban Ireland – the Irish Catholic chapter', however – during the hard times and high unemployment of the late 1970s and early 1980s – Murphy was bored and restless and couldn't wait to see more of the world. In 1983 he travelled to the US and ended up staying for almost four years; most of the time he lived in San Francisco and worked as a house painter. He'd also bought a camera and 'really took to it' after he discovered a public darkroom at the end of his street. Murphy is entirely self-taught; he learned through trial, error, experimentation and practice. He also picked up a wide range of photography books at yard sales. 'I learned by looking at different photographers' choices,' he says. Strange Love: a home in Los Angeles, California, US. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Strange Love: Berezniki, Perm Krai, Russia. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Murphy moved to London in 1987 and has lived there ever since. His big break came in his late 20s when he was back in Dublin at Christmas and photographed kids riding horses in the inner city. 'I was used to seeing them from my childhood, but I'd been in America and I thought, 'Actually, this is not usual.'' He sold the story to the London Independent; it was later picked up by a Swedish newspaper. He had a nose for a story and was on his way. As well as 'a plea for humanism', Murphy's work since then has been marked by several further themes. He prefers to work serendipitously, to follow his instincts and react to the moment in real time. 'Well, I'm not exactly the Charlie Parker of the f-stop,' he says, laughing, when I suggest his modus operandi sounds something like that of a jazz musician. 'But, yes, I'm always trying to capture the moment, to share something fresh and surprising.' Strange Love: people waiting on the platform of the LA Metro at Hollywood Western station, California, US. Photograph: Seamus Murphy Strange Love: women walk together, Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, Russia. Photograph: Seamus Murphy There is often an element of humour in his photographs, or at least some sense of the surreal or absurd. Murphy is also searching for the hidden and oblique; his work has been described as suggestive, elliptical and impressionistic – he is often looking for a measure of mystery, to raise questions beyond the frame. I have worked on assignment with Murphy, and he is a quietly assured presence, a photographer with equal parts guile, intelligence and charm. Most of all, he is democratic and non-judgemental. He no doubt needed to exhibit both qualities on his extended trips to Russia and the United States. 'I'm definitely not trying to make any equivalence politically, and I'm certainly not pointing fingers or preaching or claiming any objectivity,' he says. 'But I suppose Strange Love did distil my work in some way and supply it with … not a manifesto but an idea at the heart of it all. And it couldn't be simpler, really, or more important: we aren't as different to each other as they say we are.' Strange Love is published by Setanta Books
