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Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Amur region had been a virtual terra incognita for the Russian public. However, the region's annexation succeeded in stirring the dreams of the country's most outstanding social and political visionaries, who declared it "civilization's most important step forward." A decade later, this enthrallment and optimism had evaporated. Mark Bassin examines Russia's perceptions of the new territories, placing the Amur enigma in the context of Russian Zeitgeist mid-century, and offers a new perspective on the relationship among Russian nationalism, geographical identity and imperial expansion. ... Read more

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Visions of a Russian Mississippi
This is a masterful book that combines intellectual history and geography in a way that has not been done before, shining a new light on the issues of Russian identity and the interrelationship between exploration, conquest and nationalism.

At the center of Bassin's work is the region around the Amur River.The Amur, closed to the Russians since the late seventeenth century, attracted intense interest in Russia throughout the later part of Nicholas I's regime, but especially in the aftermath of the country's defeat in the Crimean War.Wild, unsubstantiatedexaggerations fueled this "Amur euphoria." The conquest and settlement of the Amur came to be seen as a national imperative, compensation for humiliation elsewhere. Amidst this frenzy, eager promoters who had never set their eyes on the Amur tagged the river as the "Siberian Mississippi," hoping that it would do for Siberia--and indeed for Russia as a whole--what the Mississippi did for the United States.They attached great hopes to this river.The waters of the Amur were to cleanse Russia's wounds, and redeem her in her newly-asserted eastern destiny.Yet the euphoria proved fleeting.Not long after the Russians reconquered the Amur, the realities confounded the hopes.

Although the Amur region is at the center of Bassin's book, its real subject, as the title indicates, are the "visions" of that object-region.These visions are the reflections of the visionaries, and become in certain ways "self-portraits" (p. 274), to use the author's own apt metaphor that indicates a methodological affinity to other recent works, most notably Yuri Slezkine's _Arctic Mirrors_.Whether as "mirrors" or as "self-portraits," these visions reveal far more about the visionaries than the envisioned.The "Amur euphoria" of the 1850s reflected the desperate desire of the Russian visionaries, in the wake of the Crimean War debacle, to both turn away from a Europe that "spurned" them and wounded their national pride and, at the same time, reaffirm their own Europeanness as effective "civilizers" of the east.These are complicated, sometimes conflicting visions of an "imagined" region, but Bassin skillfully steers us through them one at a time with the exuberance of a Huck Finn sailing on his raft down the Mississippi.In the process, he produces a work that will be indispensable for anyone grappling with the hisitorical issues of Russia's imperial visions. ... Read more

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This study focuses on strips of land girding large cities in Russia. Applying the term "suburb" to these strips would generate misleading associations. It's Russian counterpart has derived from a centripetal, urban-orientated migration - the Russian "Prigorod" is stepping stone to the city, not out of it, as is generally the case in the West. This volume analyses the circumstances and phenomena of land-use, residential settings, and the relationship between the urban and rural worlds in Russia. It shows how changes in Russia's urban margins are the result of ongoing political and economic reforms and also conditioned by long-term factors of life. It contains two empirical case studies: the study of te environs of Moscow and the environs of Yaroslavl in the 1990s. In both cases, recreation, rural and argicultural components are emphasised. The authors particulary examine the core-periphery gradients of land use and population dynamics, and also land transfers and the formation of the land market. ... Read more

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Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Amur region had been a virtual terra incognita for the Russian public. However, the region's annexation succeeded in stirring the dreams of the country's most outstanding social and political visionaries, who declared it "civilization's most important step forward." A decade later, this enthrallment and optimism had evaporated. Mark Bassin examines Russia's perceptions of the new territories, placing the Amur enigma in the context of Russian Zeitgeist mid-century, and offers a new perspective on the relationship among Russian nationalism, geographical identity and imperial expansion. ... Read more

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Interesting insights into human-animal relationships
This collection of scholarly essays surveys the amazingly complex human-animal relationships that pervade Russian culture, history and society and offers interesting insights into those relationships.

From the iconic bear, to a provincial dispute over a pig, to wolves, ferrets and horses, each essay offers an in-depth into one aspect of the anthro-animalia interface, as it were - usually one animal at a time. Among other things, we learn how the wolf came to be detested, why you should not throw a pig at a noblewoman, that Mayakovsky felt a particular kinship with animals, and what motivated noted animal trainer Vladimir Durov. This is a marvelous collection of academic essays that are accessible and of value to the general reader.

As reviewed by Russian Life ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Anglo-Russian," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Anglo-Russian in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Anglo-Russian when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Anglo-Russian, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "English-Russian," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have English-Russian in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with English-Russian when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name English-Russian, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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This study examines how Russians "imagine" Russia in the 21st century and for the last three centuries. It looks at Russian history and modern day conflicts, such as ethnicity, to see how Russian people identify themselves. This study sheds light on many topics in Russian history, such as nationalism, anti-Semitism, Orthodox Christianity and ethnic others and reaction to NATO actions in Kosovo. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Russian Life, published by Russian Information Services, Inc. on September 1, 2010. The length of the article is 2908 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: By the Shores of Issyk-Kul: Nikolai Przhevalsky in Kyrgyzstan.
Author: Laurence Mitchell
Publication: Russian Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Russian Information Services, Inc.
Volume: 53Issue: 5Page: 34(7)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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All text in Russian. Illustrated with prints, drawings, diagrams, maps, black-and-white photographs, and full-page color illustrations. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "The Russian Revolution," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have The Russian Revolution in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with The Russian Revolution when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name The Russian Revolution, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1504 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: IMPERIAL VISIONS: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865.(Review)
Author: JOHN McCANNON
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 90Issue: 4Page: 646

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more