Imperial Boundaries

Brian J. Boeck is Assistant Professor in the History Department at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois.

• Introduction; 1. Beyond borders, between worlds: Russian Empire and the making of the Don Steppe Frontier; 2. People and power on the frontier: liberty, diversity, and de-centralization in the Don region to 1700; 3. A middle ground between autonomy and dependence: the raiding economy of the Don Steppe Frontier to 1700; 4. Boundaries of integration or exclusion? Migration, mobility, and state sovereignty on the southern Frontier to 1700; 5. Testing the boundaries of imperial alliance: co-operation, negotiation and resistance in the era of Razin (1667–81); 6. Between Rus' and Rossiia: realigning the boundaries of Cossack communities in a time of migration and transition (1681–95); 7. The era of Raskol: religion and rebellion (1681–95); 8. Incorporation without integration: the Azov Interlude (1695–1711); 9. From frontier to borderland: the demarcation of the Steppe and the delegitimation of raiding (1696–1710); 10. Boundaries of land, liberty, and identity: making the Don region legible to imperial officials (1696–1706); 11. The Bulavin uprising: the last stand of the old Steppe (1706–9); 12. Reshaping the Don in the imperial image: power, privilege, and patronage in the post-Bulavin era (1708–39); 13. Closing the Cossack community: recording and policing the boundaries of group identity (1708–39); 14. A borderline state of mind: the closing of the Don Steppe frontier (1708–39); Afterword.

'The book not only makes an important contribution to our understanding of Russia as empire, but also tells us much about a particular region and its population, especially about the shift of social identities in early modern Russia.' Guido Hausmann, H-HistGeog