[Discussion] PUBL.- Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Jonathan Hall <jlh98@cornell.edu>


PUBL.- Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucas=
us

New from Cornell University Press:

Heretics and Colonizers - Forging Russia's Empire in the South Caucasus

Nicholas B. Breyfogle

In Heretics and Colonizers, Nicholas B. Breyfogle explores the dynamic
intersection of Russian borderland colonization and popular religious=20
culture.
He reconstructs the story of the religious sectarians (Dukhobors,=20
Molokans, and
Subbotniks) who settled, either voluntarily or by force, in the newly=20
conquered
lands of Transcaucasia in the nineteenth century. By ordering this=20
migration in
1830, Nicholas I attempted at once to cleanse Russian Orthodoxy of=20
heresies and
to populate the newly annexed lands with ethnic Slavs who would shoulder =
the
burden of imperial construction.

Breyfogle focuses throughout on the lives of the peasant settlers, their
interactions with the peoples and environment of the South Caucasus, and=20
their
evolving relations with Russian state power. Breyfogle draws on a wide=20
variety
of archival sources, including a large collection of previously unexamine=
d
letters, memoirs, and other documents produced by the sectarians that=20
allow him
unprecedented insight into the experiences of colonization and religious=20
life.
Although the settlers suffered greatly in their early years in hostile
surroundings, they in time proved to be not only model Russian colonists =
but
also among the most prosperous of the Empire's peasants. Banished to the
empire's periphery, the sectarians ironically came to play indispensable=20
roles
in the tsarist imperial agenda.

The book culminates with the dramatic events of the Dukhobor pacifist=20
rebellion,
a movement that shocked the tsarist government and received international
attention. In the early twentieth century, as the Russian state sought to
replace the sectarians with Orthodox settlers, thousands of Molokans and
Dukhobors immigrated to North America, where their descendants remain to=20
this
day.

Nicholas B. Breyfogle is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State
University. For an interview contact Professor Breyfogle at 614-292-3560 =
or
breyfogle.1@osu.edu.

Cornell University Press
July 2005
347 pages
Cloth ISBN: 0-8014-4242-7 * Price: $49.95 or =A327.50

For additional information contact:

Jonathan Hall
Tel: 607-277-2338 x252
E-mail: JLH98@cornell.edu

Cornell University Press
Sage House, 512 East State Street
Ithaca, New York 14850
USA




Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian=20
Studies