ABSTRACT

This edited volume presents new research on Russian-Asian connections by historians, art historians, literary scholars, and linguists. Of particular interest are imagined communities, social networks, and the legacy of colonialism in this important arena of global exchanges within the imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras. Individual chapters investigate how Russians imagined Asia and its inhabitants, how these different populations interacted across political and cultural divides, and how people in Siberia, China, and other parts of Asia reacted to Russian imperialism, both in its formal and informal manifestations. A key strength of this volume is its interdisciplinary approach to the topic, challenging readers to synthesize multiple analytical lenses to better understand the multivalent connections binding Russia and Asia together.

part I|66 pages

Imaginations

chapter 1|15 pages

“These plains of Great Russia were once the bottom of the sea”

Peter Simon Pallas, Siberian geohistory, and empire

chapter 2|21 pages

The view of the golden mountains

The Altai and the historical resilience of the imagination

chapter 3|16 pages

Imaginary travel to imaginary Constantinople

A painted panorama, the periodical press, and the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829)

chapter 4|12 pages

Chinese roads in the Russian imagination and in reality

The 1870s as a decade of discovery

part II|86 pages

Interactions

chapter 5|21 pages

Captivity and empire

Central Asia in nineteenth-century Russian captivity narratives

chapter 6|25 pages

Imperial dreams and the Russo-Japanese War

The diary of Field Chaplain Mitrofan Srebrianski

chapter 7|15 pages

Bad medicine

Ritual, sacrifice, and the birth of Soviet Sakha literature

chapter 8|23 pages

Heroism or colonialism?

China and the Soviet imagination of Manchuria in Port Arthur

part III|60 pages

Realities

chapter 9|18 pages

Welfare and work

Reintegrating “invalids” into Soviet Kyrgyzstan after the Great Patriotic War