1st Edition
Governing Post-Imperial Siberia and Mongolia, 1911–1924 Buddhism, Socialism and Nationalism in State and Autonomy Building
The governance arrangements put in place for Siberia and Mongolia after the collapse of the Qing and Russian Empires were highly unusual, experimental and extremely interesting. The Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic established within the Soviet Union in 1923 and the independent Mongolian People’s Republic established a year later were supposed to represent a new model of transnational, post-national governance, incorporating religious and ethno-national independence, under the leadership of the coming global political party, the Communist International. The model, designed to be suitable for a socialist, decolonised Asia, and for a highly diverse population in a strategic border region, was intended to be globally applicable. This book, based on extensive original research, charts the development of these unusual governance arrangements, discusses how the ideologies of nationalism, socialism and Buddhism were borrowed from, and highlights the relevance of the subject for the present day world, where multiculturality, interconnectedness and interdependency become ever more complicated.
Introduction
1. Demographics, Economy, and Communication in the Borderland, 1911–1917
2. Transcultural Spaces and Entanglements, 1911–1917
3. The Buryat National Autonomy, 1917–1918
4. Power Struggle in a Stateless Context, 1918–1919
5. The Mongol Federation and the Buddhist Theocracy, 1919–1920
6. The New Independent States, 1920–1921
7. The Buryat Autonomy in Transcultural Governance, 1921–1924
Conclusion
Biography
Ivan Sablin is an Associate Professor in the School of History at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, Russia.
"The period from 1911 to 1924 in eastern Siberia is unique because of the explosion there of so many state-building and autonomy projects. Sablin’s study provides not only a guide to these projects, but analysis of the ideas and theories behind them. His research demonstrates how complicated governance can be in a transcultural space. The book offers 15 useful maps that outline the geography, economy, ethnicity, and religion of the region."
Melissa Chakars, St. Joseph’s University, Slavic Review
