Suvorova Natalia

№ 3, 2010

• Controlled Colonization and Spontaneous Migration Processes on Asian Peripheries of Russian Empire

  The article aims at analyzing theoretical constructions that describe the Romanov Empire seeking for paths of national consolidation of the “united and indivisible” Russia. The aspects of the people’s colonization process comprehension reviewed by the authors deepen the understanding of why it was included in the imperial theories and practices of “russification” and what was so debatable about it. The authors demonstrate that despite the obvious difference in the content and direction of theoretical conceptions and explanatory models they possessed an overarching element i.e. civilizational rhetoric and the acknowledgement of a Russian peasant’s crucial role in the political, economic, socio-cultural and mental widening of Russia. The ideological formulas offered were replicated and propagandized by journals and newspapers becoming an important factor in shaping public opinion and building stereotypes about historical and geographic meaning of the peasants’ movement to the East.

  DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2010-5859-3-150-191