Winner of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies' Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History.
Through close study of Russian, Eurasian, and Central Asian ethnographic, administrative, literary, and missionary sources, this book shows how traditional Islamic education among the people of Tsarist Russia's Middle Volga region (today's Tatarstan) helped to Islamize the area's Turkic peoples, setting the stage for the development of modernist Islam in Russia.
"Agnes Nilufer Kefeli's thorough and imaginative use of sources is notable. She makes use of Russian official sources from the State Archives of Tatarstan and elsewhere, but she also consults a broad range of nonarchival Islamic sources, including Tatar-language Arabic-script popular literature. This makes the book highly original and important to both Russian history and Islamic studies."—Allen Frank
Defence date: 13 January 2014 ; Examining Board: Professor Stephen Anthony Smith, University of Oxford /EUI (Supervisor); Professor Alexander Etkind, EUI Professor; Alexei Miller, CEU Budapest; Professor Boris Kolonitskii, European University in St. Petersburg. ; First made available online on 26 February 2015. ; The dissertation investigates the Russification policy of the late-imperial Russian state, as it related to educational policy in the Middle Volga region. It seeks to understand how the tsarist authorities sought to define Russianness and how they sought to craft relations with pagan minorities and Muslims in a region where the Slavic-Orthodox, the Turkic-Islamic and the Finno-pagan worlds interacted. It asks how far the educational projects of the Orthodox missions and the secular authorities brought about Russification. The analysis of the changes in imperial policy in the period between the 1860s to 1914 allows for the conclusion that the methods, instruments and aims of Russification policy continually changed and that policy was applied quite differently vis-à-vis the Muslim and pagan, or in most cases only superficially Orthodox , population of the region. When dealing with the educational project for the non-Muslim population in the region, also known as the project of N.Ilminskii, the dissertation aims to understand how the russifying and missionary components related to each other. Furthermore, it studies the alternative educational projects aiming at Russification of the non-Russian population of the region that the Ilminskii system had to compete with. A considerable amount of the dissertation is devoted the discussion of the Muslim reform movement and emergence of Jadidism. By analyzing and comparing the curricula of old-method madrasahs and the new-methods ones, the dissertation demonstrates the evolution that the Middle Volga Muslims underwent under the influence of both inner reforms and the actions of the authorities.
"This book investigates the policy of Russia on the Caspian and in the nearby territories from old times to the beginning of the present millennium, thus, spanning several centuries. The book also discusses the motivations of the rulers of Rus', Moscow State, Russian Empire, the USSR and later on, Russia that pursued active foreign policy targeted to extension of the geopolitical influence and strengthening of the economic presence in the near-Caspian territories and on the Caspian Sea proper. The main stages of formation of the Russian foreign policy are studied. The causes underlying the rivalry of Russia with Persia and Turkey, Central Asian Khanates and European states for the leading positions on the Caspian are analyzed. The authors describe the mechanisms used by Russia in its foreign policy with regard to the established political and economic conditions. Much attention is focused on the analysis of Russia's foreign policy in the Caspian region after disintegration of the USSR when the situation on the Caspian had changed drastically. Formerly there were two Caspian statesaUSSR and Iran, but now three new independent states appeared, i.e. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, which immediately became the focus of interest of non-regional states and leading oil and gas companies. This book describes how the policy of Russia has been changing in the face of a new geopolitical situation in the Caspian region. The approaches of Russia to addressing the regional problems, first of all, the international legal status of the Caspian Sea, hydrocarbon production and transportation, militarization and ecology, etc. are analyzed. All these factors urged Russia to develop new approaches towards the Caspian region. The book investigates the effect of the foreign policy of new Caspian states, the USA, EU and China on the Caspian policy of Russia. The complicated geopolitical situation on the Caspian and unceasing attention to its hydrocarbon resources force Russia to keep a close watch on the Caspian region that remains the main vector of the Russian foreign policy."--Preface
Imperial Russia's Muslims offers an exploration of social and cultural change among the Muslim communities of Central Eurasia from the late eighteenth century through to the outbreak of the First World War. Drawing from a wealth of Russian and Turkic sources, Mustafa Tuna surveys the roles of Islam, social networks, state interventions, infrastructural changes and the globalization of European modernity in transforming imperial Russia's oldest Muslim community: the Volga-Ural Muslims. Shifting between local, imperial and transregional frameworks, Tuna reveals how the Russian state sought to manage Muslim communities, the ways in which both the state and Muslim society were transformed by European modernity, and the extent to which the long nineteenth century either fused Russia's Muslims and the tsarist state or drew them apart. The book raises questions about imperial governance, diversity, minorities, and Islamic reform, and in doing so proposes a new theoretical model for the study of imperial situations
Access options:
The following links lead to the full text from the respective local libraries:
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Sources of Messianism and pragmatism -- 2 The rise and fall of Nikita S. Khrushchev -- 3 Up the down staircase: the era of Leonid Brezhnev -- The defeat that turned into success -- The Middle East in Soviet military strategy -- A semi-victory turned into defeat -- Sliding downhill -- Lost opportunities -- The human dimension -- 4 "Ardent revolutionaries, loyal friends" -- the USSR and the Communist movement -- 5 An exotic flower of Arabia -- 6 Through the looking glass, or the decision-making process -- Quadrangle: Ministry of Foreign Affairs – International Department of the Central Committee – State Security Committee – Ministry of Defence -- Personalities in big politics -- Diplomats: Their pluses, minuses, capabilities -- 7 Afghanistan: Russia's unhealed wound -- "Cannot lose Afghanistan" -- "History gives no answer" -- The logic of the fateful decision -- Seeking a solution -- 8 Messianism in decline: the time of Mikhail Gorbachev -- 9 Foreign policy and domestic policy: the USSR, Israel and the Palestinians -- 10 Storms in alien deserts -- 11 Cursed Nineties -- Ignore not interfere . . . -- The Madrid process and the fate of the "mother of all conflicts" -- Russia–Israel: "Friendship" with reservations -- The minefields of Iraq -- Turkey: a privileged trade partner -- Difficult movement towards each other -- A desirable partner -- 12 To return, but how? -- The attempts to keep Iraq as a partner -- The years and the fruit of real pragmatism: Russian-Turkish relations -- "A good neighbour, but neighbours are not chosen": the Russian Federation and Iran -- Afghanistan: far, but in some ways close -- Russia and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula: certain progress -- A partnership but not an alliance (Russia and Egypt in the 2000s)
Access options:
The following links lead to the full text from the respective local libraries:
Volga State University of Technology was established in 1932. It's Russia's leading university in areas of: predicting the use and protection of natural resources in order to prevent the negative effects, and methods of evaluation of the biological productivity of forest plantations using remote sensing data, the development of new energy-saving technologies and equipment for harvesting and processing of timber and non-timber forest resources; aerobic , anaerobic and vermitechnological organic waste, use only renewable resources, the creation of new technological installations for production and purification of biogas, the creation of modern technological solutions for greenhouses with autonomous energy supply based on local renewable energy, the creation of device-analytical systems for the study and modeling of membrane contactor and gas separation membrane-sorption processes in relation to the processes of organic waste and produce biogas fuel, new technologies of organic waste and non-fertilizer in green building, new technologies reclamation of disturbed areas, reforestation, creation of objects in areas of intensive logging and taken out of use of agricultural land under the Kyoto Protocol. The strategic development program of the University received funding of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. To improve the efficiency of research in 2001, the University established the Center for collective use "Ecology, biotechnology, and the processes of generating clean energy" with unique equipment, which is funded under the Federal Target Program "Research and development on priority directions of scientific-technological complex of Russia in 2007-2013 ". To concentrate educational resources for the training of skilled workers , vocational training specialists, specialists with higher education in the forestry sector at the university was established resource center of professional education, funded by the Federal Program of Education Development for 2011-2015. The main focus is on the development of innovation infrastructure in the University of the , favorable conditions for the development of small innovative companies. In 2011, the University has won the competition for funding under the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation № 219 "On state support of innovation infrastructure in the federal educational institutions of higher education." The university holds a lot of projects funded under the Federal Target Program "Scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of innovative Russia in 2009-2013", including a project to develop a high school student self-management.
Subnational political units are growing in influence in national and international affairs, drawing increasing scholarly attention to politics beyond national capitals. In this book, leading Russian and Western political scientists contribute to debates in comparative politics by examining Russia's subnational politics.Beginning with a chapter that reviews major debates in theory and method, this book continues to examine Russia's 83 regions, exploring a wide range of topics including the nature and stability of authoritarian regimes, federal politics, political parties, ethnic conflict, gover
Access options:
The following links lead to the full text from the respective local libraries:
"Imperial Russia's Muslims offers an exploration of social and cultural change among the Muslim communities of Central Eurasia from the late eighteenth century through to the outbreak of the First World War. Drawing from a wealth of Russian and Turkic sources, Mustafa Tuna surveys the roles of Islam, social networks, state interventions, infrastructural changes and the globalization of European modernity in transforming imperial Russia's oldest Muslim community: the Volga-Ural Muslims. Shifting between local, imperial and transregional frameworks, Tuna reveals how the Russian state sought to manage Muslim communities, the ways in which both the state and Muslim society were transformed by European modernity, and the extent to which the long nineteenth century either fused Russia's Muslims and the tsarist state or drew them apart. The book raises questions about imperial governance, diversity, minorities, and Islamic reform, and in doing so proposes a new theoretical model for the study of imperial situations"--
"Subnational political units are growing in influence in national and international affairs, drawing increasing scholarly attention to politics beyond national capitals. In this book, leading Russian and Western political scientists contribute to debates in comparative politics by examining Russia's subnational politics. Beginnings with a chapter that reviews major debates in theory and method, this book continues to examine Russia's 83 regions, exploring a wide range of topics including the nature and stability of authoritarian regimes, federal politics, political parties, ethnic conflict, governance and inequality in a comparative perspective. Providing both qualitative and quantitative data from 20 years of original research, the book draws on elite interaction, public opinion and the role of institutions regionally in the post-Soviet years. The regions vary on a number of theoretically interesting dimensions while their federal membership provides control for other dimensions that are challenging for globally comparative studies. The authors demonstrate the utility of subnational analyses and show how regional questions can help answer a variety of political questions, providing evidence from Russia that can be used by specialists on other large countries or world regions in cross-national scholarship. Situated within broader theoretical and methodological political science debates, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Russian politics, comparative politics, regionalism and subnational politics"--
This study, written from the perspective of political sociology, represents the first comparative examination of Central Asian communal and political organisation before and after the tsarist conquest of the region. It covers Turkman, Kyrgyz, Kazakh and other tribal societies, analyses the patrimonial state structures of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanates of Khiva and Khokand, and discusses the impacts of the established tsarist civil military administration on communal and political orientations of the Muslim population.
the 18th-century expeditions from the Academy of Sciences aimed at colonizing new territories, especially eastern, exploring their landscapes, natural resources, and inhabitants. The article focuses on the team working in the Cheremshan basin. The description of findings is arranged in five sections, following Lepyokhin's classification: landscape, population, clothing, occupations, and rituals. For the first time, a complete, updated, and verified list of settlements visited by the expedition members is provided. The role of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Director, Count Vladimir Orlov, in the organization of the expedition is described. The author disproves the opinion regarding the authorship of the anonymous article "Brief News About Simbirsk Vicegerency" published in the "Mesyatsoslov" journal in 1786. The persons to whom the article was attributed include Lepyokhin, Maslenitsky, and Ozeretskovsky, but the textological analysis of the article and of the manuscript at the Russian State Archives of Military History suggests that this is a collective digest of manuscripts by Milkovich and Maslenitsky. ; Статья посвящена анализу путешествия И.И. Лепёхина в Средневолжский регион в рамках Академической экспедиции 1768–1774 гг. Целью всех академических экспедиций XVIII в. было освоение территорий России (особенно восточных), изучение их ландшафта, природных богатств и народов. В статье делается акцент на работе отряда в бассейне р. Черемшан. Анализируемый материал разбит по пяти разделам в соответствии с информацией, изложенной И.И. Лепёхиным: ландшафт, население, одежда, занятия, обряды. Впервые дается полный, уточненный и выверенный, список населенных пунктов, которые посетили участники экспедиции. Рассматривается роль директора Императорской петербургской академии наук В.Г. Орлова в организации экспедиции. Автор дискутирует с имеющимся в литературе мнением об авторстве анонимной статьи «Краткое известие о Симбирском наместничестве», опубликованной в 1786 г. в журнале «Месяцослов». Данная публикация приписывалась И.И. Лепёхину, Т.Г. Масленицкому и Н.Я. Озерецковскому. На основании текстологического анализа статьи и архивной рукописи из Российского государственного военно-исторического архива делается заключение, что опубликованная в «Месяцослове» статья «Краткое известие о Симбирском наместничестве» является коллективной компиляцией рукописей К.С. Мильковича и Т.Г. Масленицкого.
