A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 1700-1918

A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 1700-1918 proposes a new language for studying and conceptualizing the spaces, societies, and institutions that existed on the territory of today''s Northern Eurasia, until recently part of the USSR. Traditional concepts and genealogies that frame human experience have to be avoided or reframed: this is not the story of a certain present-day state or people evolving through consecutive historical stages. Rather, the book''s point of departure is a modern analytical approach to the problem of human diversity as a fundamental social condition. In the form of cooperation and confrontation, various attempts to manage diversity fostered processes of societal self-organization, as new ideas, practices, and institutions were developed virtually from scratch or radically altered when borrowed. Essentially, this is the story of individuals and societies who creatively responded to their natural and social environments and sought answers to universal problems in unique historical circumstances.This volume, which brings together leading scholars from both the United States and Russia, covers the period during which the enormous landmass from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, from the Polar Circle in the north to the steppe belt in the south was put under the control of a single polity: the Russian Empire. Previously, the competing local scenarios of self-organization had taken specific political forms that suited them best. This book shows that the Russian Empire faced the daunting task of coordinating multifaceted diversity within a single political and legal body, under constantly changing domestic and international circumstances. The study reveals that, to this end, the imperial regime employed various means, from violence to science, from segregation to integration, and yet was still unable to block multiple political actors within the empire from advancing their own strategies of belonging, resistance, and participation.>...

Préface
An examination of how, and with what success, the Russian Empire handled the huge logistical challenge of organizing the eclectic peoples of the Eurasian region under one constitution.

Auteur
Marina B. Mogilner is Edward and Marianna Thaden Chair in Russian and East European Intellectual History and Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. She is the author of Homo Imperii: A History of Physical Anthropology in Russia (2013).

Texte du rabat

A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 1700-1918 proposes a new language for studying and conceptualizing the spaces, societies, and institutions that existed on the territory of today's Northern Eurasia, until recently part of the USSR. Traditional concepts and genealogies that frame human experience have to be avoided or reframed: this is not the story of a certain present-day state or people evolving through consecutive historical stages. Rather, the book's point of departure is a modern analytical approach to the problem of human diversity as a fundamental social condition. In the form of cooperation and confrontation, various attempts to manage diversity fostered processes of societal self-organization, as new ideas, practices, and institutions were developed virtually from scratch or radically altered when borrowed. Essentially, this is the story of individuals and societies who creatively responded to their natural and social environments and sought answers to universal problems in unique historical circumstances. This volume, which brings together leading scholars from both the United States and Russia, covers the period during which the enormous landmass from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, from the Polar Circle in the north to the steppe belt in the south was put under the control of a single polity: the Russian Empire. Previously, the competing local scenarios of self-organization had taken specific political forms that suited them best. This book shows that the Russian Empire faced the daunting task of coordinating multifaceted diversity within a single political and legal body, under constantly changing domestic and international circumstances. The study reveals that, to this end, the imperial regime employed various means, from violence to science, from segregation to integration, and yet was still unable to block multiple political actors within the empire from advancing their own strategies of belonging, resistance, and participation.

Contenu

1. From the 'Gunpowder Empire' to the 'Modern State' 2. From the 'Modern State' to the 'Modern Empire' 3. The Modern Empire in Search of a Nation 4. Designing a National Empire 5. Empire and Revolution: The Revolutionary Movement in Imperial Society before the Era of Mass Politics 6. The Collapse of the Regime of the Russian National Empire 7. Self-Organization of the 'Progressive Empire' 8. The War of Globalization and the Imperial Revolution Bibliography Index