Description
Book SynopsisPerspectives on the strategies of imperial rule pursued by rulers, officials, scholars, and subjects of the Russian empire. This book explores the connections between Russia's expansion over vast territories occupied by people of many ethnicities, religions, and political experiences and the evolution of imperial administration and vision.
Trade ReviewEighteen articles, mainly by US, Russian, and British scholars, cover various aspects of the Russian Empire from its foundation under Peter the Great to the rule of Stalin. The Russian participants, mostly historians and political scientists, come from the two Russian capitals and various other cities. The major focus is the geographies of rule in Russia. . . . The materials are derived in large part from Russian archives, especially those in Moscow. Several good maps aid readers' comprehension. . . . Recommended.
* Choice *
[D]emonstrates brilliantly how the Russian and Soviet empires were able to survive for so long . . . This is a genuinely valuable and thought-provoking collection of essays and it deserves a wide readership.
* European History Quarterly *
This book makes a substantial contribution to scholarship not only on Russian history but the whole study of empire.
* New Zealand Slavonic Journal *
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Coming into the Territory: Uncertainty and Empire Jane Burbank and Mark von Hagen
Part I: Space
1. Imperial Space: Territorial Thought and Practice in the Eighteenth Century Willard Sunderland
2. The "Great Circle" of Interior Russia: Representations of the Imperial Center in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Leonid Gorizontov
3. How Bashkiria Became Part of European Russia, 1762-1881 Charles Steinwedel
4. Mapping the Empire's Economic Regions from the Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century Nailya Tagirova
5. State and Evolution: Ethnographic Knowledge, Economic Expediency, and the Making of the USSR, 1917-1924 Francine Hirsch
Part II: People
6. Changing Conceptions of Difference, Assimilation, and Faith in the Volga-Kama Region, 1740-1870 Paul Werth
7. Thinking Like an Empire: Estate, Law and Rights in the Early Twentieth Century Jane Burbank
8. From Region to Nation: The Don Cossacks 1870-1920 Shane O'Rourke
9. Bandits and the State: Designing a "Traditional" Culture of Violence in the Russian Caucasus Vladimir Bobrovnikov
10. Representing "Primitive Communists": Ethnographic and Political Authority in Early Soviet Siberia Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov
Part III: Institutions
11. From the Zloty to the Ruble: The Kingdom of Poland in the Monetary Politics of the Russian Empire Ekaterina Pravilova
12. The Muslim Question in Late Imperial Russia Elena Campbell
13. The Zemstvo Reform, the Cossacks, and Administrative Policy on the Don, 1864-1882 Aleksei Volvenko
14. Peoples, Regions, and Electoral Politics: The State Dumas and the Constitution of New National Elites Rustem Tsiunchuk
15. The Provisional Government and Finland: Russian Democracy and Finnish Nationalism in Search of Peaceful Coexistence Irina Novikova
Part IV. Designs
16. Siberia and the Russian Far East in the Imperial Geography of Power Anatolyi Remnev
17. Imperial Political Culture and Modernization in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
Sviatoslav Kaspe
18. Federalisms and Pan-movements: Re-imagining Empire Mark von Hagen
List of Contributors
Index
