Abstract

The Muslim population of the Russian empire has lately heightened the interest of Russian and foreign historians. A number of books and articles about them in Russian and English has been published, many of which saw the light on the pages of the international magazine devoted to imperial history and nationalism in the former Soviet Union, “Ab Imperio”. What do all these articles have in common? In terms of concept they all stem from the post-colonial glossary of the new imperial history — a current that formed initially in the historiography of the British Empire under a strong influence of the postcolonial theory and criticism of post-structuralism. In the recent years this current has gained a new dimension shaped by researchers of the post-Soviet and Eurasian countries in the course of discussions related to nature of imperial situations and formations, practical and structural aspects of cultural inequality, diversity reproduction and rationalisation in empires and so on. The question is not so much about the new trend for studying imperial history (which is politics-driven anyway), but rather about the fact that empires have turned into an analytical frame for studying complex, mosaic societies featuring intricate overlapping and co-existence of different — and often conflicting — regimes of cultural differences. This is the way the new imperial history is understood by the authors united in the “Ab Imperio” magazine project, with which this course is mainly associated.

Imprint

Muslims in the New Imperial History: collection of articles / edited and compiled by V.O. Bobrovnikov, I.V. Gerasimov, S.V. Glebov, А.P. Kaplunovskiy, M.B. Mogilner, A.M. Semyonov. – М.: ООО Sadra, 2017. – 424 p. – [Islamica & Orientalistica].