'They need to know that they are now in our realm...': Subjecthood in the Russian Far East, 1860-1900

On November 13 Visiting Professor from Amherst College and Smith College (USA) Sergey Glebov gave a talk '"They need to know that they are now in our realm...”: Subjecthood in the Russian Far East, 1860-1900' at the regular Research Seminar 'Boundaries of History' of the Center for Historical Research and the Department of History of the Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg.

Russian Empire traditionally considered populations residing on territories incorporated into the empire to have acquired Russian imperial subjecthood. These populations were normally categorized through the system of estates. In the Russian Far East, however, this "normal" pattern of managing populations was broken and a new notion of "imperial subject" took shape. How did this notion come about, and what role did ideas of race and state play in it? How effective was the system of maintaining separate subjecthood and in what forms was this system experienced by people? These are the questions that were considered in the discussion.  Alexander Semyonov (PhD, Professor, Chair of the Departament of History, National Research University Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg) moderated the discussion.