Gypsies as a litmus test for rational, tolerant rule: Fin-de-siècle Russian ethnographers confront the comparative history of Roma in Europe

Abstract

This article examines six ethnographic studies of Gypsies published in late imperial Russia that offered a comparative history of Roma in Europe. In representing Gypsies’ culture and history, Russian ethnographers deployed “the Gypsy question” as a litmus test of tolerant, rational governance. Comparing European modes of managing ethnic difference, they argued for the superiority of imperial Russian rule. The rational and tolerant Russian state, they insisted, endeavored to transform the “semi-savage” Gypsies into integrated citizens of the autocratic empire. By contrast, Western European states oppressed Gypsies, thereby alienating them from civic life. Late imperial ethnographic writings on Gypsies presaged similar, but also different claims made about Gypsies and their history in the context of early Soviet nationality policy during the 1930s. They also deserve consideration as an underappreciated antecedent to late twentieth- and early twenty-first century debates over social justice and European states’ policies directed toward either the civic inclusion or exclusion of Roma.