Description
Book SynopsisIn Heretics and Colonizers, Nicholas B. Breyfogle explores the dynamic intersection of Russian borderland colonization and popular religious culture.
Trade ReviewHeretics and Colonizers builds on the vision of the Russian Empire as a complex and multilevel system marked by social and administrative diversity. It is a very important book that should appeal to students of religion, nationalism, and empire in both Russian and European contexts.
* American Historical Review *
An outstanding work of scholarship, Heretics and Colonizers offers fresh insight into the subtle and complex relationships between religious sectarianism, tsarist nation-building, and frontier identity. By delving into the lives of Dukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks in the Caucasus, Nicholas B. Breyfogle reveals the rich tapestry of Russia's sectarian past. It is the most comprehensive, the most reliable, and the most readable book on this subject and period that I have encountered.
* Doukhobor Genealogy Website *
Breyfogle's book is an important contribution to the social, cultural, and environmental history of Russian imperialism and popular religiosity.
* Slavic Review *
The long history of Russia's self-colonization has been marked by a combination of compulsion and voluntarism. Here Nicholas B. Breyfogle explores a fascinating element of that history, which illustrates graphically the contradictions in the policies pursued by the Russian state.
* Slavonic and East European Review *
This is a book that all specialists in imperial Russia, the Caucasus, and Russian religion need to read. It should also be required for those interested in Russian frontiers or environmental history. It is, finally, accessible and well suited to classroom use.
* Canadian American Slavic Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
PART I: THE ROAD TO TRANSCAUCASIA
1. Toleration through Isolation
The Edict of 1830 and the Origins of Russian Colonization in Transcaucasia
2. To a Land of Promise
Sectarians and the Resettlement Experience
PART II: LIFE ON THE SOUTH CAUCASIAN FRONTIER
3. "In the Bosom of an Alien Climate"
Ecology, Economy, and Colonization
4. Heretics into Colonizers
Changing Roles and Transforming Identities on the Imperial Periphery
5. Frontier Encounters
Conflict and Coexistence between Colonists and South Caucasians
PART III: THE DUKHOBOR MOVEMENT
6. From Colonial Settlers To Pacifist Insurgents
The Origins of the Dukhobor Movement, 1887–1895
7. Peasant Pacifism and Imperial Insecurities
The Burning of Weapons, 1895–1899
The End of an Era and Its Meanings
Selected Bibliography
Index
