Threads of Empire : Loyalty and Tsarist Authority in Bashkiria, 1552–1917

"Threads of Empire examines how Russia's imperial officials and intellectual elites made and maintained their authority among the changing intellectual and political currents in Eurasia from the mid-16th century to the revolution of 1917. The book focuses on a region 750 miles east of Moscow known as Bashkiria. The region was split nearly evenly between Russian and Turkic language speakers, both nomads and farmers. Ufa province at Bashkiria's core had the largest Muslim population of any province in the empire. The empire's leading Muslim official, the mufti, was based there, but the region also hosted a Russian Orthodox bishop. Bashkirs and peasants had different legal status and powerful Russian Orthodox and Muslim nobles dominated the peasant estate. By the 20th century, industrial mining and rail commerce gave rise to a class structure of workers and managers. Bashkiria thus presents a fascinating case study of empire in all its complexities and of how the tsarist empire's ideology and categories of rule changed over time"--Provided by publisher A history and analysis of Bashkiria and its transformation into a Russian imperial region of the course of three and a half centuries.Threads of Empire examines how Russia's imperial officials and intellectual elites made and maintained their authority among the changing intellectual and political currents in Eurasia from the mid-sixteenth century to the revolution of 1917. The book focuses on a region 750 miles east of Moscow known as Bashkiria. The region was split nearly evenly between Russian and Turkic language speakers, both nomads and farmers. Ufa province at Bashkiria's core had the largest Muslim population of any province in the empire. The empire's leading Muslim official, the mufti, was based there, but the region also hosted a Russian Orthodox bishop. Bashkirs and peasants had different legal status, and powerful Russian Orthodox and Muslim nobles dominated the peasant estate. By the twentieth century, industrial mining and rail commerce gave rise to a class structure of workers and managers. Bashkiria thus presents a fascinating case study of empire in all its complexities and of how the tsarist empire's ideology and categories of rule changed over time.“An original and well-researched study of the incorporation of the Bashkir lands and their transformation into a Russian imperial region over the course of three and a half centuries. Steinwedel argues that the history of Bashkiria exposes a number of the empire's achievements as a multiethnic society.... He draws out both important shifts and abiding continuities in the history of the region [and] by employing a multi-dimensional approach, covering a range of intersecting topics, provides a fuller appreciation for the region. He also does a nice job pointing out the useful commonalities and differences between the Bashkir lands and other parts of the empire, making a compelling case for Bashkiria's importance for understanding larger processes.” —Willard Sunderland, author of Taming the Wild Field: Colonization and Empire on the Russian Steppe“With its solid grounding in Russian archival and printed sources and its sophisticated comparative approach, Steinwedel's work will serve as a point of departure for historians of the Russian Empire, and will become a book of reference for any future study of empires in global history.” —American Historical Review“[Steinwedel's] book is both a skilful exercise in local and regional history, and an important contribution to the history of Imperial Russia as a whole.” —Slavonic and East European Review La 4e de couverture porte : "Threads of Empire examines how Russia's imperial officials and intellectual elites made and maintained their authority among the changing intellectual and political currents in Eurasia from the mid-16th century to the revolution of 1917. The book focuses on a region 750 miles east of Moscow known as Bashkiria. The region was split nearly evenly between Russian and Turkic language speakers, both nomads and farmers. Ufa province at Bashkiria's core had the largest Muslim population of any province in the empire. The empire's leading Muslim official, the mufti, was based there, but the region also hosted a Russian Orthodox bishop. Bashkirs and peasants had different legal status and powerful Russian Orthodox and Muslim nobles dominated the peasant estate. By the twentieth century, the presence of mines and railroads introduced the discourse of class. Bashkiria thus presents a fascinating case study of empire in all its complexities and of how the tsarist empire's ideology and categories of rule changed over time." "Threads of Empire examines how Russia's imperial officials and intellectual elites made and maintained their authority among the changing intellectual and political currents in Eurasia from the mid-16th century to the revolution of 1917. The book focuses on a region 750 miles east of Moscow known as Bashkiria. The region was split nearly evenly between Russian and Turkic language speakers, both nomads and farmers. Ufa province at Bashkiria's core had the largest Muslim population of any province in the empire. The empire's leading Muslim official, the mufti, was based there, but the region also hosted a Russian Orthodox bishop. Bashkirs and peasants had different legal status and powerful Russian Orthodox and Muslim nobles dominated the peasant estate. By the twentieth century, the presence of mines and railroads introduced the discourse of class. Bashkiria thus presents a fascinating case study of empire in all its complexities and of how the tsarist empire's ideology and categories of rule changed over time" ... Provided by publisher Cover 1 THREADS OF EMPIRE 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 CONTENTS 8 Acknowledgments 10 List of Abbreviations 14 Introduction 18 1 Steppe Empire, 1552–1730 32 2 Absolutism and Empire, 1730–1775 57 3 Empire of Reason, 1773–1855 93 4 Participatory Empire, 1855–1881 130 5 The Empire and the Nation, 1881–1904 163 6 Empire in Crisis, 1905–1907 197 7 Empire, Nations, and Multinational Visions, 1907–1917 220 Conclusion 256 Notes 270 Bibliography 346 Index 378