Веха в изучении истории Сибири в Российской империи

SUMMARY:

Ivan Sokolovskii’s review of the volume Siberia within the Russian Empire comprises a detailed analysis of the book chapter by chapter and an assessment of the book’s conclusions in relation to current Siberian historiography. Sokolovskii praises the volume for taking on the novel methodologies of exploration of the symbolic geography of Siberia and history of the frontier in Siberia history. He also states that the volume’s stronger features are the exploration of the colonization of Siberia, Siberian industrial development and the analysis of the oblastnichestvo federalism project. Sokolovskii believes that the book would have been strengthened had it included an explication of the historiographic background of Siberian studies in which it was written. He also notes that the volume does not include the history of the regular imperial army in Siberia and fails to account for the impact of the railway on the history of Siberian integration into the Russian Empire.