Settler Colonialism and Borderlands Capitalism in Siberia and Central Asia

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the environmental and economic impacts of Russian settler colonialism in Siberia and Central Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Resettlement, contrary to the rhetoric of its components, did not take place on a blank slate; rather, it entailed complex interactions with existing local practices in land use, agriculture, animal husbandry, and trade. Our focus is precisely on the interactivity of the settler-indigenous relationship, exploring how administrators understood local practices, the way settlers adapted to realities on the ground after their arrival, and indigenous strategies of adaptation to their changing circumstances. Drawing case studies from multiple regions of the empire – the Kazak steppe, Yakutia, and the shores of the Caspian Sea – will permit us to make robust comparisons within the Russian Empire, while our engagement with the broader scholarship on settler colonialism and the history of capitalism will allow us to draw parallels and make comparisons with other imperial situations.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• David William Darrow, U of Dayton

Papers

• From Nomads to Settlers?: Indigenous Response to the Russian Settler and Resource Colonialism in Postimperial Yakutia - Aleksandr Korobeinikov, Central European U (Hungary)

• Making Sense of Maritime Environments in Central Asia: Settlers, Nomads, and Commercial Fisheries in the Caspian Sea, 1890s-1910s - Ruslana Bovhyria, Freie U Berlin (Germany)

• 'Predatory Capitalism' and the Politics of Settlement on the Kazakh Steppe - Sean P McDaniel, Cumberland U

Discussant

• Ian Wylie Campbell, UC Davis