The «Aztec Empire» and Nahua (Aztec) Socio-Political Organization Through the Eyes of Russian Historians, Ethnologists and Archeologists

The article examines scientific approaches of Russian scholars to studies of Aztec state in the middle 18th – early 21st centuries. Since the 18th century when fragmentary and contradictory information about Prehispanic past of Mexico and Central America started to circulate in Russian historical science, sociаl organization of Nahuas, i.e. the largest ethnic group of Mesoamerica on the eve of the Spanish conquest, and the character of their political entities, particularly the Aztec «empire» union of three city-states in the Basin of Mexico (Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan) have been subjects of debate among Russian historians that specialize in studies of Pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. Over the last three centuries the «Aztec empire» was portrayed either as a feudal monarchy analogous to the Holy Roman Empire, or as a despotic state similar to the kingdoms of the Middle East, or as a confederation of primitive tribes that failed to establish their own state. The main objective of the author was to elucidate the factors that influenced scholar’s vision in each specific case. These factors included general knowledge of foreign languages, particularly Classical Nahuatl and Spanish, for most of primary sources for the study of the Prehispanic Nahua social organization were written in these languages, scholars’ theoretical approaches to social evolution and state-building, as well as the quality of materials used as sources of information. The works of Russian historians about Prehispanic Nahua social organization published in the middle 18th – early 21st centuries reveal that most authors lacked the necessary knowledge of primary sources’ languages, with excessive use of imprecise publications in French, English and German also bringing about numerous mistakes. According to the author, the Marxist ideology dominant in the Soviet period had negative influence on studies of the Prehispanic Nahuatl society, which led to false conclusions about the level of social development of the Prehispanic Nahuas on the eve of the Spanish Conquest.

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