Law and Interethnic Relations in the Russian Empire: The Tatar Riots of 1878 and their Judicial Aftermath

This article combines a discussion of the administrative-legal system in late nineteenth-century Russia with an investigation of imperial rule over a multiconfessional population. Focusing on the Tatar peasant riots in Kazan Province (1878–1879) and their judicial aftermath, it not only highlights the importance of the new legal principles and procedures introduced in the 1860s but also points to the shifting position and power of non-Russians. It argues that that new legal possibilities also came to be enjoyed and used by ethnoreligious minorities, such as Muslim Tatars, who ultimately took a governor to court for having used excessive violence against them. At the same time, the article maps out the tensions and complexities of the postreform period: a remarkable drive toward modernization in some aspects of governance, paired with a chronically understaffed local bureaucracy, administrative carelessness, and a peculiar international and geopolitical context that framed the perceptions and behavior of local actors. The analysis draws on the Kazan governor’s memoirs, reports, and correspondence, archival material from Kazan and St. Petersburg, and extensive coverage of the case in local and national newspapers.