Русско-шведская граница (1617–1700 гг.) by А. А. Селин (review)

Adrian Selin's study of the border between the Novgorodian region and the lands acquired by Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbovo (1617) – the borders with Estland and with the Ingrian lands (Ingermanland) – is a treasure trove of information. Selin builds his book on a rich collection of documents from the "Foreign Affairs Desk" of the Novgorod governor's office, housed in the archive of the St. Petersburg Filial of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; he appends a document-by-document opisanie of the over 1,000 items in the fond (Arkhiv SPbII RAN RC Fond 109), stretching to 90 pages, and also adds a collection of 56 annotated documents from 1533 to 1666 (another 45 pages). The documents in this archive provide the skeleton on which Selin constructs his book.

Selin advises the reader from the first that he does not intend to provide a systematic study of any one of the many issues raised by his sources: the histories of Novgorod, Estland, or Ingermanland, the governors of each territory, "questions of religious oppression, emigration, military engagements" (P. 3). Rather, he intends to show "how the border worked." Although he briefly reviews theoretical work on the problem of frontiers and borders in early modern states, he declares that his goal is less theory than practice: he intends to offer the reader "an overall representation of the Russian-Swedish border of the seventeenth century" (P. 7), seen from both sides of the story. He succeeds well in this encyclopedic goal.

Selin organizes the book into eight distinct essays or ocherki: "Borders in the Northwest," "Delimitation of the Border 1617–1620s," "Migration and Repatriation," "Legal Crossings of the Border," "Defense of the Border," "The Population on Each Side of the Border: Space and People," "The Population on Each Side of the Border: Daily Life," and "The Archaeology of the Border." Each ocherk is arranged chronologically, detailing information on the given theme provided by documents in the archive, supplemented by broader archival work and secondary sources, as well as by fascinating ethnography done by Selin and others on "legends" of Swedish control in modern-day Karelia and Ingria. (Selin's previous major publications complement this work, including a prosopographical study of early modern Novgorodian society during the Time of Troubles and a historical geography of the Novgorod region from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.) Many maps illustrate regional issues, although an overall map of the area would be very helpful; name and geographical indexes are provided, but a bibliography would be a valuable addition.

Selin stays true to his goal of shaping his ocherki around the documents of fond 109. Most readers would appreciate more historical context: the closest that the book comes to an overall synthesis of the political framework comes in the first ocherk, which surveys Russian-Swedish interactions and borders in these areas from the fourteenth century to the Time of Troubles. But as a rule, the book assumes prior knowledge of the geopolitics of this turbulent century of Swedish expansion, of the society and politics of neighboring Estland (controlled by Sweden since 1561) and of the Ingrian lands. When acquired by Sweden, Ingria was war-ravaged and underpopulated; its Orthodox population steadily crossed back into Russia as Sweden slowly pushed in-migration of Lutherans from Finland. Much of this is touched on in the book, but not provided as background to the micro-historical episodes Selin focuses on. Russko-shvedskaia granitsa is a sort of micro-microhistory, immersing the reader in the thick of surveys, population exchanges, diplomats and diplomacy, road construction, border outposts, and cross-border crime.

Russko-shvedskaia granitsa is therefore rich in the history of lived experience that, in Russian history, is made most possible by the bureaucratic documentation that fond 109 offers. There is something here for all interests. Selin reconstructs, for example, numerous biographies of Swedish and Russian diplomats engaged in various aspects of border politics. I found particularly fascinating his discussions of road, border post, and postal station construction, of defense against epidemics, of spies...