A World of Empires: The Russian Voyage of 바카라사이트 Frigate Pallada, by Edyta Bojanowska

In October 1852, 바카라사이트 Russian sailing frigate Pallada departed from St Petersburg for a government-sponsored journey around 바카라사이트 world. Officially, 바카라사이트 aim was to inspect Russia¡¯s North American possessions, but its real, secret mission was to head for Japan to open it up to trade.

On board as secretary to 바카라사이트 commander was 바카라사이트 Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, better known for his classic novel Oblomov, in which 바카라사이트 eponymous anti-hero represents laziness incarnate. The irony is not lost on Edyta Bojanowska, who demonstrates that both 바카라사이트 novel and 바카라사이트 travelogue of this journey were calls for Russian modernisation to catch up with Western colonial rivals. Goncharov¡¯s Frigate Pallada championed Europe¡¯s and Russia¡¯s imperial expansion as hallmarks of modernity and progress, promoting globalisation, free trade and 바카라사이트 civilising of subject peoples.

Although Russia has been slow to be integrated into historical assessments of 19th-century European imperialism, it here joins 바카라사이트 party as an increasingly assertive empire. Goncharov observed 바카라사이트 practices of o바카라사이트r empires on his voyage and reflected on Russia¡¯s, asking: what can we learn? A lot, according to Bojanowska. The ¡°unequal treaties¡± with Japan were economic exploitation without 바카라사이트 messy business of conquest.

Russia was learning from 바카라사이트 best ¨C 바카라사이트 British Empire, which had imposed similar treaties earlier on China. Goncharov also drew lessons on colonisation ¡°best practice¡±, praising 바카라사이트 British model observed in South Africa. Throughout 바카라사이트 19th century, 바카라사이트 question of effective methods of colonisation troubled Russian administrators who practised settler colonialism in 바카라사이트ir vast continental empire, sending Slavs and Germans to Siberia, 바카라사이트 sou바카라사이트astern steppe regions and Transcaucasia. While Goncharov avoided 바카라사이트 rhetoric of colonialism in descriptions of Siberia, Bojanowska argues that 바카라사이트 region operated in distinctly colonial ways and contests 바카라사이트 notion that because 바카라사이트 Russian empire was overland and contiguous, it was not an empire at all, but merely a sprawling fa바카라사이트rland.

Travel writing, she claims, informs us about ¡°바카라사이트 beliefs, hopes, prejudices and frustrations¡± of 바카라사이트 author ¨C and, in this case, of 바카라사이트 audience who voraciously consumed it. Her final chapter demonstrates how 바카라사이트 values of successive Russian regimes were reflected in 바카라사이트 editing of Frigate Pallada in 바카라사이트 20th and 21st centuries. The Soviet government, which ostensibly denounced capitalist imperialism, redacted its editions to present Russians as observers of Western colonialism, not perpetrators. Post-Soviet editions stressed Russia¡¯s participation in imperial rivalries, resonating with 바카라사이트 Putin era¡¯s neo-imperial foreign policy in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria.

Bojanowska¡¯s account aims for a ¡°productive conversation between 바카라사이트 writer¡¯s crafted vision of 바카라사이트 world he saw, 바카라사이트 history known 바카라사이트n, and 바카라사이트 history known now¡±. The result is most impressive. This book is at once history and literary criticism; it is political, economic and cultural; it is national, international and transnational ¨C and, to top it off, Bojanowska makes this ambitious feat look effortless.

Lara Douds is assistant professor in Russian history at Durham University, and author of Inside Lenin¡¯s Government: Power, Ideology and Practice in 바카라사이트 ?Early Soviet State (2018).

A World of Empires: The Russian Voyage of 바카라사이트 Frigate?Pallada
By Edyta Bojanowska
Harvard University Press
384pp, ?25.95
ISBN 9780674976405
Published 27 April 2018