Russia in Asia: Imaginations, Interactions, and Realities

Description

"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"-- Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations List of contributors Acknowledgments Imaginations, interactions, and realities PART I: Imaginations 1. “These plains of Great Russia were once the bottom of the sea”: Peter Simon Pallas, Siberian geohistory, and empire 2. The view of the golden mountains: The Altai and the historical resilience of the imagination 3. Imaginary travel to imaginary Constantinople: A painted panorama, the periodical press, and the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) 4. Chinese roads in the Russian imagination and in reality: The 1870s as a decade of discovery PART II: Interactions 5. Captivity and empire: Central Asia in nineteenth-century Russian captivity narratives 6. Imperial dreams and the Russo-Japanese War: The diary of Field Chaplain Mitrofan Srebrianski 7. Bad medicine: Ritual, sacrifice, and the birth of Soviet Sakha literature 8. Heroism or colonialism? China and the Soviet imagination of Manchuria in Port Arthur PART III: Realities 9. Welfare and work: Reintegrating “invalids” into Soviet Kyrgyzstan after the Great Patriotic War 10. Urbanization, language vitality, and well-being in Russian Eurasia 11. Evolving language contact and multilingualism in Northeastern Russia Selected Bibliography Index