Russia in Asia: Imaginations, Interactions, and Realities

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.

Jane F. Hacking is Professor of Russian at the University of Utah. She is the author of Coding the Hypothetical (1998). She publishes in the areas of L2 Russian phonology and the development of second language proficiency. In 2017 she was recognized for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession by the American Association of Slavic and East European Languages.

Jeffrey S. Hardy is Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He is the author of The Gulag After Stalin: Redefining Punishment in Khrushchev’s Soviet Union (2016), which was awarded honorable mention for the W. Bruce Lincoln Prize by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Matthew P. Romaniello is Associate Professor of History at Weber State University and editor of The Journal of World History. He is author of Enterprising Empires: Russia and Britain in Eighteenth-Century Eurasia (2019) and The Elusive Empire: Kazan and the Creation of Russia, 1552–1671 (2012).