1st Edition

Asiatic Russia Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts

Edited By Tomohiko Uyama Copyright 2012
    320 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    320 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Although the Russian Empire has traditionally been viewed as a European borderland, most of its territory was actually situated in Asia. Imperial power was huge but often suffered from a lack of enough information and resources to rule its culturally diverse subjects, and asymmetric relations between state and society combined with flexible strategies of local actors sometimes produced unexpected results.

    In Asiatic Russia, an international team of scholars explores the interactions between power and people in Central Asia, Siberia, the Volga-Urals, and the Caucasus from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, drawing on a wealth of Russian archival materials and Turkic, Persian, and Tibetan sources. The variety of topics discussed in the book includes the Russian idea of a "civilizing mission," the system of governor-generalships, imperial geography and demography, roles of Muslim and Buddhist networks in imperial rule and foreign policy, social change in the Russian Protectorate of Bukhara, Muslim reformist and national movements.

    The book is essential reading for students and scholars of Russian, Central Eurasian, and comparative imperial history, as well as imperial and colonial studies and nationalism studies. It may also provide some hints for understanding today’s world, where "empire" has again become a key word in international and domestic power relations.

    Introduction Uyama Tomohiko  Part I: Russia’s Eastern Expansion: Its "Mission" and the Tatars’ Intermediary Role  1. The Russian Empire’s Civilizing Mission in the Eighteenth Century in Comparative Perspective Ricarda Vulpius  2. Tatarskaia Kargala in Russia’s Eastern Policies Hamamoto Mami  3. The Russian Empire and the Intermediary Role of Tatars in Kazakhstan: The Politics of Cooperation and Rejection Gulmira Sultangalieva  Part II: Taming Space and People: Institutions and Demography  4. Intra-Bureaucratic Debate on the Institution of Russian Governors-General in the Mid-Nineteenth Century Matsuzato Kimitaka  5. Asiatic Russia: Colonization and "Russification" in the Imperial Geography of the Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries Anatolii Remnev  6. Empire and Demography in Turkestan: Numbers and the Politics of Counting Sergei Abashin  Part III: Russian Power Projected beyond its Borders  7. Russo-Chinese Trade through Central Asia: Regulations and Reality Noda Jin  8. Muslim Networks, Imperial Power, and the Local Politics of Qajar Iran Robert D. Crews  9. Sunni-Shi‘i Relations in the Russian Protectorate of Bukhara, as Perceived by the Local ‘Ulama Kimura Satoru  10. The Open and Secret Diplomacy of Tsarist and Soviet Russia in Tibet: The Role of Agvan Dorzhiev (1912–1925) Nikolay Tsyrempilov  Part IV: Asiatic Russia as a Space for National Movements  11. Muslim Political Activity in Russian Turkestan, 1905–1916 Salavat Iskhakov  12. On the Cultural Front Lines: Muslim Reformers and Communities in Late Imperial Russia James H. Meyer  13. The Alash Orda’s Relations with Siberia, the Urals and Turkestan: The Kazakh National Movement and the Russian Imperial Legacy Uyama Tomohiko

    Biography

    UYAMA Tomohiko is professor at the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University. He specializes in the history of the Russian Empire and contemporary politics in Central Asia, and is the editor of Empire, Islam, and Politics in Central Eurasia (2007) and co-editor of Japan’s Silk Road Diplomacy (2008).

    "Evtuhov does a wonderful job describing the group of diverse individuals who found that their purpose through dedication to the province...Anyone who wants to understand provincialism or how individuals outside the capital cities constructed their indentity in tsarist Russia should read it." - Aaron B Retish, Wayne State University; The Russian Review, 2013.

    "This volume will be of interest to anyone studying the dynamic historical accounts of Russia’s policies in the East, and particularly Central Asia, until the times of the Soviets." - R. Turaeva, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany; Slavonic and East European Review (vol. 91, no. 2, April 2013).