Homesick Imperialists: Boredom and Nostalgia at the Edge of the Russian Empire

• In Event: Imperial Pain: Suffering, Whining, Pining, and Dying in the Russian Empire

Abstract

From the early 19th century onwards, the dominant narrative about Russia’s expansion into the Asian continent drew on the repertoire of images of brave and selfless men who flocked to faraway places in pursuit of glory and adventure. According to this widely held view, imperialism—deadly dangerous as it was for those who participated in it—was deemed rewarding enough to risk one’s life for, as it promised the joy of heroic accomplishment. This paper relies on ego-documents produced by tsarist soldiers, bureaucrats, and explorers in the Caucasus, to show that, more often than not, their actual experiences on the ground were strikingly different. Those who came to live, work, travel, and wage war in the Caucasus faced boredom and dullness rather than excitement and thrill. The paper argues that, faced with homesickness, or nostalgia, as the prevailing emotional reaction to an alien environment, members of tsarist society sought solutions in the imperial civilizing mission and the increased intervention of the empire in local affairs.

Author

• Oleksandr Polianichev, Södertörn U (Sweden)