Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800 by Michael s> Khodarkovsky (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I07 province of Kakisalmi, ceded by Russia at the peace of Stolbova in I6 i 7. This introduced a complication in that many of the inhabitants there were of the Orthodox faith, quite distinct from the Lutheran Finns and had their own traditions. Matikainen's book is dedicated to illustrating changes in mentalities or attitudes to violent crime at all levels of society in this period. It was emphatically not confined to the lower orders, mainly peasants practising beat-burn agriculture, but included clergymen, the military, noblemen and public officials. All members of society shared a well established reputation for quarrelling violently in public and private places, usually under the influence of alcohol, and eventually assaulting each other, most often with the paukko, the lethal knife which all adults seemed to carry, but also with axes, sickles or anything else that came to hand. Apart from soldiers, firearms were rather inifrequently involved. This violence was nearly all spontaneous, cases of premeditated assault are recorded but were infrequent. It is unfortunate that the valuable contributions which Matikainen makes to the study of this subject will remain closed to those without the command of Finnish and Swedish. His aim has been to illustrate the mentalities behind the violence, and shifts in attitude over time, from the relatively abundant Court records of the day, in which the actual words of the participants, and the circumstances of the incidents are described. The core of the collection consists of records of I38 cases of homicide, where the 'recovery of the blood' w-asinvolved, plus other cases of what amounted to grievous bodily harm. The collection offers concrete evidence of how what, to a modern observer, looks like almost childish exchange of vulgar abuse, was perceived as constituting a serious challenge to a person's social status such that a resort to lethal violence, followed by a publicly recorded act of settlement ensued. It is easy to forget how important the publicly spoken word could be in a largely illiterate society. The non-reader of Finnish has to be content with a substantial Englishlanguage summary. Department of llodern Histogy A. F. UPTON Ulnire;sity ofStAndrezts Khodarkovsky,Michael. Russia'sSteppe Frontier. TheMaking ofa Colonial Empire, I500-1800. Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies. Indiana University Press,Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2002. XiV+ 290 pp. Maps. Illustrations.Glossary.Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?30?50? THE southern and eastern steppe played a critical role in the history and development of Russia, a role too often underemphasizedin general histories of the country. In the earlycenturiesthe region was at once a bridge between Rus' and the BlackSea and Byzantium, and an avenue of attackand invasion from the East. Khodarkovsky'swork examines Russian interaction with the area in the critical period between the decline of Mongol power and the completion of Russian hegemony (the Crimea was finallyintegrated into the Russian Empire in I 783). Khodarkovskyis concerned to escape the common 'colonialist' perspective which views relations with the frontier peoples Io8 SEER, 82, I, 2004 essentially from the standpoint of Moscow and St Petersburg.His previous work, especially his study of Russian-Kalmyk relations, equips him well for the task,and he has produced an outstandinglyclearand persuasivepictureof the changing relationshipsbetween the two sides. While Russian statehood, military power and ideological assertiveness evolved steadily through the Muscovite period, the tsarshad neverthelessto play a careful economic and diplomaticgame with theirsteppe counterparts.These were a rangeof groups and leaders for whom mobility, transhumance, raiding and internecine feuding were essential features of life, and who would ally with any local power (Muscovy, Poland-Lithuania, Crimea, the Ottomans, the Cossacks, each other) according to convenience, clan dynamics or the quality of 'gifts' offered: often a matter of protection-racketeering raised to the level of diplomacy. Nor were steppe rulersalwayswilling or able to control theirown subjects.Muscovite policy-makersproved equally adroit and opportunisticin pursuing their own goals, within the constraints imposed by resource limitation, the changing local balance of power, and the size and topography of the region. Even in the eighteenth century, when Russian pre-eminence was unquestioned, Kalmyk, Kazakh or Nogai relations remained a major problem of policy for the Imperial government, posing questions of...