Empire Speaks Out: Languages of Rationalization and Self-Description in the Russian Empire (Russian History and Culture)

Historians habitually write about empires that expand, wage wars, and collapse, as if empires were self-evident and self-conscious entities with a distinct and clear sense of purpose. The stories of empires are told in the language of modern nation-centred social sciences: multi-cultural and heterogeneous empires of the past appear either as huge “nations” with a common language, culture, and territory, or as amalgamations of would-be nations striving to gain independence. Empire Speaks Out reconstructs the historical encounter of the Russian Empire of the seventeenth through the early twentieth centuries with the complex challenge of modernity. It does so by taking the self-awareness of empire seriously, and by looking into how bureaucrats, ideologues, politicians, scholars, and modern professionals described the ethnic, cultural, and social diversity of the empire. “Empire” then reveals itself not through deliberate and well-conceived actions of some mysterious political body, but as a series of “imperial situations” that different people encounter and perceive in common categories. The rationalization of previously intuitive social practices as imperial languages is the central theme of the collection. This book is published with support from Volkswagen Foundation, within the collective research project “Languages of Self Description and Representation in the Russian Empire” Contents......Page 6 Part one Defining Empire in a Dialogue......Page 8 New Imperial History and the Challenges of Empire (Ilya Gerasimov, Sergey Glebov, Jan Kusber, Marina Mogilner, Alexander Semyonov)......Page 10 Considerations on Imperial Comparisons (Ann Laura Stoler)......Page 40 Part Two the Challenge of Unification and Resistance......Page 64 Governance, Education, and the Problems of Empire in the Age of Catherine II (Jan Kusber)......Page 66 "Us" and "Them"? Polish Self-Descriptions and Perceptions of the Russian Empire between Homogeneity and Diversity (1815–1863) (Hans-Christian Petersen)......Page 96 Siberian Middle Ground: Languages of Rule and Accommodation on the Siberian Frontier (Sergey Glebov)......Page 128 Part Three the Challenge of Transformation and Rationalization......Page 160 Russian Physical Anthropology of the Nineteenth–Early Twentieth Centuries: Imperial Race, Colonial Other, Degenerate Types, and the Russian Racial Body (Marina Mogilner)......Page 162 "The Real and Live Ethnographic Map of Russia": The Russian Empire in the Mirror of the State Duma (Alexander Semyonov)......Page 198 Redefining Empire: Social Engineering in Late Imperial Russia (Ilya Gerasimov)......Page 236 Name Index......Page 280 pt. 1. Defining empire in a dialogue pt. 2. The challenge of unification and resistance Governance, education, and the problems of empire in the age of Catherine II / Jan Kusber "Us" and "them" : Polish self-descriptions and perceptions of the Russian Empire between homogeneity and diversity (1815-1863) / Hans-Christian Petersen Siberian middle ground : languages of rule and accommodation on the Siberian frontier / Sergey Glebov pt. 3. The challenge of transformation and rationalization Russian physical anthropology of the nineteenth-early twentieth centuries : imperial race, colonial other, degenerate types, and the Russian racial body / Marina Mogilner "The real and live ethnographic map of Russia" : the Russian Empire in the mirror of the State Duma / Alexander Semyonov Redefining empire : social engineering in late imperial Russia / Ilya Gerasimov. This collection turns to different modes of self-representation and self-description of the Russian Empire in an attempt to reveal social practices and processes that are usually ignored by the teleological, nation-centered historical narratives.