Reconsidering Empire: Nationality, Indigeneity, and Separatism in Nineteenth-Century Siberia
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Authors
Gorska, Joanna
Date
2025-07-03
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Empire , Indigeneity , Siberia , Separatism , Russia , Exile
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the relationship between indigenous peoples, imperial authorities, and revolutionaries in mid-nineteenth century Siberia, contextualizing Russian ruling strategies against the backdrop of three separate conspiracies that threatened the Empire’s territorial integrity. The Affair of the Omsk Separatists (1865), the Krasnoyarsk-Kansk Affair (1866), and the Transbaikal Uprising (1866) not only affected Petersburg’s policies towards ethnic minorities, but also shaped the Russian revolutionary movement’s perceptions of empire, nationality, and alterity. Although they differed in maturity and preparedness, these three conspiracies constituted the material culmination of federative thought among the Empire’s intelligentsia, uniting Russian populists, Siberian autonomists, and exiled Poles. Southern Siberian indigenous populations, notably the Tatars and Buryats, further informed the revolutionaries’ convictions, which entailed the legal and social enfranchisement of the Empire’s subjugated minorities.
Imperial invigilation and retribution extinguished the conspiracies before they could mature, although Petersburg’s worried response reveals a crucial ruling strategy I have identified as the localization of difference. In an era of standardization and centralization, the government actively encouraged the proliferation of multiple identities, thereby preventing the emergence of a consolidated national consciousness that could threaten its imperial structures. Conversely, the Russian revolutionaries learned from Petersburg, and as the movement shifted towards statism, it adapted the Empire’s strategy favouring the governance of difference through difference. Fundamentally, this dissertation speaks to empire as much as it speaks to revolutionary movements, demonstrating their symbiotic relationship as Russia entered the age of modernisation.
From its inception, Russia-as-empire employed a flexible approach to its conquered territories and peoples, enacting a policy of coopting local elites into the state apparatus. The recognition of a privileged service elite loyal to the tsar thus assured political stability, and Siberia’s annexation followed this pattern of conquest and cooptation. Penal practices and the institution of exile, however, complicated social dynamics in the Empire’s distant borderlands. The arrival of thousands of disgruntled revolutionaries would make the situation untenable, although the resulting conspiracies and their aftermath reveal the importance of capitalizing on difference for both the imperial government and the revolutionaries.
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