Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700-1930

Description:
'Russian Empire' offers new perspectives on the strategies of imperial rule pursued by rulers, officials, scholars, and subjects of the Russian empire. An international team of scholars 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. The fresh research reflected in this innovative volume reveals the ways in which the realities of sustaining imperial power in a multiethnic, multiconfessional, scattered, and diffuse environment inspired political imaginaries and set limits on what the state could accomplish. Taken together, these rich essays provide important new frameworks for understanding Russia's imperial geography of power.

Review:
'Eighteen 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 'Russian Empire offers much valuable information on a wide range of significant issues ... Genuinely thoughtful and thought-provoking.' Dominic Lieven

Table of Contents:
Coming into the Territory: Uncertainty and Empire Jane Burbank & 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