Valerie Kivelson is Valerie Kivelson (PhD Stanford University) teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is Thomas N. Tentler Collegiate Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History. Her publications include Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2013); and Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2006). She is the editor of Witchcraft Casebook: Magic in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, 15th-21st Centuries [Russian History/Histoire russe vol. 40, nos. 3-4 (2013)], and co-editor, with Joan Neuberger, of Picturing Russia: Explorations in Visual Culture (2008).Ron Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago, and Senior Researcher at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia. The author and editor of eighteen books, Suny pioneered the field of Soviet nationality studies, introducing the constructivist approach to the making of nations into Russian and Soviet studies. He wrote extensively on the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), the Russian Revolution, nationalism and empire. Among his principal works are: The Baku Commune, 1917-1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution; The Making of the Georgian Nation; Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History; The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union; and The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; 2011).

In this remarkable work, two of the leading historians of the "imperial turn" have drawn on the past quarter-century of historical work and produced the most readable and insightful single volume of Russian history to date. Valerie Kivelson and Ronald Suny reveal how Russia's empires functioned as polities by employing not just coercive power but discursive power. In doing so, they illuminate how Russia also became an "imperial nation," one where national and imperial policies developed simultaneously yet frequently produced tensions. Russia's Empires is historical synthesis at its finest." - Stephen Norris, Miami University

• List of MapsPrefaceAbout the Authors IntroductionThinking About EmpireEmpiresRussia's Imperial Formations Chapter One: Before Empire: Early Rus' Visions of Diversity of Lands and PeoplesBefore the State: The Peoples of RusNew Models for Understanding Kiev Rus': Stateless Head or Galactic PolityAppanage Rus' and Further FragmentationMongol Khans and the Aura of Empire Chapter Two: Imperial Beginnings: MuscovyBuilding a State; Claiming an EmpireIvan the Terrible: Imperial Principles in PracticeMuscovite Autocracy: Power and ObligationWho Were the Muscovites? What was Rus'?The People Speak: The Time of TroublesImperial Conquest and Control Chapter Three: Disrupting the Easy Road from Empire to Nation State: A Theoretical InterludeNation, Nationalism, and the Discourse of the Nation Chapter Four: Responsive Rule and Its Limits: Force and Sentiment in the Eighteenth CenturySuccession, Consultation, and the Politics of AffirmationThe Petrine Revolution and the Imperial StatePeter's Successors: A Century of Women (and Children) on Top Chapter Five: Russians' Identities in the Eighteenth Century: A Multitude of PossibilitiesWhat does Russian mean? Thinking about Nations in the Eighteenth CenturyA Multiplicity of Nations: The Peoples and Divisions of EmpireImperial Expansion in the Eighteenth Century Chapter Six: Imperial Russia in the Moment of the Nation, 1801-1855A Kind of ConstitutionClash of EmpiresImperial ConservatismThe DecembristsOfficial NationalityThe IntelligentsiaExpansion, Conquest, and RebellionImagining the Russian "Nation": Between West and East Chapter Seven: War, Reforms, Revolt, and ReactionA Foolish WarThe Great Reforms: Nations, Subjects, and CitizensParticipatory Politics and Categories of DifferenceWho Are We? More Questions of National IdentityRussification, Diversity, and Empire"Pacifying" the PeripheriesConquering Central AsiaCounter-Reforms and Political PolarizationEmpire and the Revolutionary Movement Chapter Eight: Imperial Anxieties: 1905-1914The Fate of Empires in the Twentieth CenturyThe Modernizing Empire and its DiscontentsImperial Overreach: Tsarist Modernization and ExpansionThe First Revolution, 1905When Nationalism Goes Public: Reimagining Empire Chapter Nine: Clash and Collapse of Empires: 1914-1921The Great WarNationality and Class Across the Revolutionary DivideSoviet PowerSoviet Nationality Policies Chapter Ten: Making Nations, Soviet Style: 1921-1953The Stalin Years, 1928-1953Beating Peasants into SubmissionEmpire-State and State of NationsBuilding National BolshevismFrom Hot War to Cold War: External Empire as Defensive ExpansionCold War at Home: The Internal EmpireSoviet Discursive Power Chapter Eleven: Imperial Impasses: Reform, Reaction, RevolutionPolicy and Experience: Friendship of the PeoplesA Strange EmpireThe Soviet Union in the WorldStagnationGorbachev and the Test of Perestroika Chapter Twelve: The End of Empire, 1991-2016 . . . Or Not?Vladimir Putin and the Rebuilding of the StateDemocratic Recession in the Post-Soviet StatesPost-Superpower Russia and NATO ExpansionRed Lines in the Near Abroad: Georgia and Ukraine Conclusion

Valerie Kivelson is Valerie Kivelson (PhD Stanford University) teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is Thomas N. Tentler Collegiate Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History. Her publications include Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2013); and Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2006). She is the editor of Witchcraft Casebook: Magic in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, 15th-21st Centuries [Russian History/Histoire russe vol. 40, nos. 3-4 (2013)], and co-editor, with Joan Neuberger, of Picturing Russia: Explorations in Visual Culture (2008).Ron Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago, and Senior Researcher at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia. The author and editor of eighteen books, Suny pioneered the field of Soviet nationality studies, introducing the constructivist approach to the making of nations into Russian and Soviet studies. He wrote extensively on the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), the Russian Revolution, nationalism and empire. Among his principal works are: The Baku Commune, 1917-1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution; The Making of the Georgian Nation; Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History; The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union; and The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; 2011).

In this remarkable work, two of the leading historians of the "imperial turn" have drawn on the past quarter-century of historical work and produced the most readable and insightful single volume of Russian history to date. Valerie Kivelson and Ronald Suny reveal how Russia's empires functioned as polities by employing not just coercive power but discursive power. In doing so, they illuminate how Russia also became an "imperial nation," one where national and imperial policies developed simultaneously yet frequently produced tensions. Russia's Empires is historical synthesis at its finest." - Stephen Norris, Miami University

• List of MapsPrefaceAbout the Authors IntroductionThinking About EmpireEmpiresRussia's Imperial Formations Chapter One: Before Empire: Early Rus' Visions of Diversity of Lands and PeoplesBefore the State: The Peoples of RusNew Models for Understanding Kiev Rus': Stateless Head or Galactic PolityAppanage Rus' and Further FragmentationMongol Khans and the Aura of Empire Chapter Two: Imperial Beginnings: MuscovyBuilding a State; Claiming an EmpireIvan the Terrible: Imperial Principles in PracticeMuscovite Autocracy: Power and ObligationWho Were the Muscovites? What was Rus'?The People Speak: The Time of TroublesImperial Conquest and Control Chapter Three: Disrupting the Easy Road from Empire to Nation State: A Theoretical InterludeNation, Nationalism, and the Discourse of the Nation Chapter Four: Responsive Rule and Its Limits: Force and Sentiment in the Eighteenth CenturySuccession, Consultation, and the Politics of AffirmationThe Petrine Revolution and the Imperial StatePeter's Successors: A Century of Women (and Children) on Top Chapter Five: Russians' Identities in the Eighteenth Century: A Multitude of PossibilitiesWhat does Russian mean? Thinking about Nations in the Eighteenth CenturyA Multiplicity of Nations: The Peoples and Divisions of EmpireImperial Expansion in the Eighteenth Century Chapter Six: Imperial Russia in the Moment of the Nation, 1801-1855A Kind of ConstitutionClash of EmpiresImperial ConservatismThe DecembristsOfficial NationalityThe IntelligentsiaExpansion, Conquest, and RebellionImagining the Russian "Nation": Between West and East Chapter Seven: War, Reforms, Revolt, and ReactionA Foolish WarThe Great Reforms: Nations, Subjects, and CitizensParticipatory Politics and Categories of DifferenceWho Are We? More Questions of National IdentityRussification, Diversity, and Empire"Pacifying" the PeripheriesConquering Central AsiaCounter-Reforms and Political PolarizationEmpire and the Revolutionary Movement Chapter Eight: Imperial Anxieties: 1905-1914The Fate of Empires in the Twentieth CenturyThe Modernizing Empire and its DiscontentsImperial Overreach: Tsarist Modernization and ExpansionThe First Revolution, 1905When Nationalism Goes Public: Reimagining Empire Chapter Nine: Clash and Collapse of Empires: 1914-1921The Great WarNationality and Class Across the Revolutionary DivideSoviet PowerSoviet Nationality Policies Chapter Ten: Making Nations, Soviet Style: 1921-1953The Stalin Years, 1928-1953Beating Peasants into SubmissionEmpire-State and State of NationsBuilding National BolshevismFrom Hot War to Cold War: External Empire as Defensive ExpansionCold War at Home: The Internal EmpireSoviet Discursive Power Chapter Eleven: Imperial Impasses: Reform, Reaction, RevolutionPolicy and Experience: Friendship of the PeoplesA Strange EmpireThe Soviet Union in the WorldStagnationGorbachev and the Test of Perestroika Chapter Twelve: The End of Empire, 1991-2016 . . . Or Not?Vladimir Putin and the Rebuilding of the StateDemocratic Recession in the Post-Soviet StatesPost-Superpower Russia and NATO ExpansionRed Lines in the Near Abroad: Georgia and Ukraine Conclusion

Valerie Kivelson is Valerie Kivelson (PhD Stanford University) teaches at the University of Michigan, where she is Thomas N. Tentler Collegiate Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History. Her publications include Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2013); and Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2006). She is the editor of Witchcraft Casebook: Magic in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, 15th-21st Centuries [Russian History/Histoire russe vol. 40, nos. 3-4 (2013)], and co-editor, with Joan Neuberger, of Picturing Russia: Explorations in Visual Culture (2008).Ron Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago, and Senior Researcher at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia. The author and editor of eighteen books, Suny pioneered the field of Soviet nationality studies, introducing the constructivist approach to the making of nations into Russian and Soviet studies. He wrote extensively on the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), the Russian Revolution, nationalism and empire. Among his principal works are: The Baku Commune, 1917-1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution; The Making of the Georgian Nation; Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History; The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union; and The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; 2011).

In this remarkable work, two of the leading historians of the "imperial turn" have drawn on the past quarter-century of historical work and produced the most readable and insightful single volume of Russian history to date. Valerie Kivelson and Ronald Suny reveal how Russia's empires functioned as polities by employing not just coercive power but discursive power. In doing so, they illuminate how Russia also became an "imperial nation," one where national and imperial policies developed simultaneously yet frequently produced tensions. Russia's Empires is historical synthesis at its finest." - Stephen Norris, Miami University

• List of MapsPrefaceAbout the Authors IntroductionThinking About EmpireEmpiresRussia's Imperial Formations Chapter One: Before Empire: Early Rus' Visions of Diversity of Lands and PeoplesBefore the State: The Peoples of RusNew Models for Understanding Kiev Rus': Stateless Head or Galactic PolityAppanage Rus' and Further FragmentationMongol Khans and the Aura of Empire Chapter Two: Imperial Beginnings: MuscovyBuilding a State; Claiming an EmpireIvan the Terrible: Imperial Principles in PracticeMuscovite Autocracy: Power and ObligationWho Were the Muscovites? What was Rus'?The People Speak: The Time of TroublesImperial Conquest and Control Chapter Three: Disrupting the Easy Road from Empire to Nation State: A Theoretical InterludeNation, Nationalism, and the Discourse of the Nation Chapter Four: Responsive Rule and Its Limits: Force and Sentiment in the Eighteenth CenturySuccession, Consultation, and the Politics of AffirmationThe Petrine Revolution and the Imperial StatePeter's Successors: A Century of Women (and Children) on Top Chapter Five: Russians' Identities in the Eighteenth Century: A Multitude of PossibilitiesWhat does Russian mean? Thinking about Nations in the Eighteenth CenturyA Multiplicity of Nations: The Peoples and Divisions of EmpireImperial Expansion in the Eighteenth Century Chapter Six: Imperial Russia in the Moment of the Nation, 1801-1855A Kind of ConstitutionClash of EmpiresImperial ConservatismThe DecembristsOfficial NationalityThe IntelligentsiaExpansion, Conquest, and RebellionImagining the Russian "Nation": Between West and East Chapter Seven: War, Reforms, Revolt, and ReactionA Foolish WarThe Great Reforms: Nations, Subjects, and CitizensParticipatory Politics and Categories of DifferenceWho Are We? More Questions of National IdentityRussification, Diversity, and Empire"Pacifying" the PeripheriesConquering Central AsiaCounter-Reforms and Political PolarizationEmpire and the Revolutionary Movement Chapter Eight: Imperial Anxieties: 1905-1914The Fate of Empires in the Twentieth CenturyThe Modernizing Empire and its DiscontentsImperial Overreach: Tsarist Modernization and ExpansionThe First Revolution, 1905When Nationalism Goes Public: Reimagining Empire Chapter Nine: Clash and Collapse of Empires: 1914-1921The Great WarNationality and Class Across the Revolutionary DivideSoviet PowerSoviet Nationality Policies Chapter Ten: Making Nations, Soviet Style: 1921-1953The Stalin Years, 1928-1953Beating Peasants into SubmissionEmpire-State and State of NationsBuilding National BolshevismFrom Hot War to Cold War: External Empire as Defensive ExpansionCold War at Home: The Internal EmpireSoviet Discursive Power Chapter Eleven: Imperial Impasses: Reform, Reaction, RevolutionPolicy and Experience: Friendship of the PeoplesA Strange EmpireThe Soviet Union in the WorldStagnationGorbachev and the Test of Perestroika Chapter Twelve: The End of Empire, 1991-2016 . . . Or Not?Vladimir Putin and the Rebuilding of the StateDemocratic Recession in the Post-Soviet StatesPost-Superpower Russia and NATO ExpansionRed Lines in the Near Abroad: Georgia and Ukraine Conclusion