Empire in the Way: Controlling and Liberating the Narratives of the Russian North

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel will investigate change and continuity between Russian and Soviet imperial approaches to northern territories. How did dominant narratives about the Russian north change over time? How was Russian and Soviet rule enforced in the north, both physically and ideologically? These three papers touch upon the colonial nature of both Russian and Soviet rule their northern regions, thereby offering insights into the nature of empire and resistance to it.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Tamara Polyakova, U of Wisconsin-Madison / U of Eastern Finland (Finland)

Papers

• Finno-Ugric Alterity and the 1905 Revolution: Imperial Interpretations of Otherness in the Russian North - Richard Byington, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Nature in the Way: Turning 'Tracts' into Throughfares in the Soviet North, 1925-1935 - Tracy Nichols Busch, Ferris State U

• The Two Arctics: Soviet Experiences, Propaganda, and Socialist Realism in the Far North - Alina Bykova, Stanford U

Discussant

• Christopher John Ward, Clayton State U