Robert P. Geraci is Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is coeditor, with Michael Khodarkovsky, of the book Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia, also from Cornell.
Geraci's fascinating book uses a variety of well-documented
analyses and examples to examine the ambiguities of nationality and
assimilation in the late imperial period. He weaves material from
local archives, contemporary periodicals, ethnographic texts, and
memoirs to present a multilayered analysis of ethnic life in the
Kazan region.... This thought-provoking and extremely well-written
book should be on the reading list of anyone interested in the
ambiguities created when nationality, identity, and the goals of
empire intersect. Geraci raises a number of questions about
Russianness and convincingly shows how assimilation was difficult
to achieve and define.
*Slavic and East European Journal*
What does it mean to be Russian?... How do these identities arise
and develop, how do they affect the identities of neighboring
national groups' These are the central question considered by
Robert Geraci's brilliant study of the Tatar-Russian city of Kazan
in the nineteenth century.... A short review cannot do justice to
the richness and breadth of this book.... More important than the
breadth of sources, however, is the nuanced and intelligent use of
these documents. The book truly integrates the sources into a
compelling and engrossing narrative, spiked with illuminating
analytical insights. Perhaps best of all, Geraci is a gifted writer
whose precision and elegance of expression is exemplary.
*H-Russia, H-Net Reviews*
Geraci's splendid book brings the story into the era of modern
Russian nationalism, the dilemmas of modern empire, and the Islamic
response to the pressures of European modernity.... Rich in detail
and nuance, Geraci's book tells one much about Russian assumptions
about themselves, the Muslim other, and empire.... This excellent
book is... free of jargon and easy to read. It fills a big gap in
the history both of Russia's empire and of European empire in
general.
*Slavic Review*
In a climate of Islamic religious revival combined with growing
racial intolerance among the dominant, Christian nationality, how
does a European government integrate its Muslim minorities.
Citizens of France, Germany, and other contemporary Western states
who are grappling with this question today will not be heartened by
Window on the East,... Robert Geraci's thoughtful account of the
Romanov autocracy's unsuccessful efforts to integrate its eastern
ethnicities a century ago.... Geraci is not the only scholar to
have written about these tsarist efforts to win the hearts and
minds of Kazan's minorities, but his book extends far beyond
educational policy by also examining the ways in which Russians
perceived the region's nationalities through the lenses of
'Orientology' and ethnography.
*Journal of Modern History*
The scholarship is sound and the work is rich with valuable
insights.
*Choice*
Under the last three tsars, most educated Russians agreed that the
assimilation of the empire's eastern 'aliens' (inorodsty) was
either desirable, necessary, inevitable, or some combination of the
three, but agreeing on particulars was more difficult.... Robert
Geraci's fascinating book deftly exposes the complexity of this
situation by examining the discussion on Russianness and
assimilation that unfolded within the academic, missionary, and
pedagogical circles of the Kazan region in the years between the
1860s and 1917.... His book is sophisticated, nuanced, and richly
researched, and it should become a fundamental study of Russian
nationality in the late Imperial era.
*Russian Review*
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