Russian Anatolia (1878-1917)

The Russian Empire’s expansion in the the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman empire in 1877 was not simply the continuation of the 19^th century southern expansion of the Romanov empire. The Russian imperial authorities saw this conquest as the subjugation of a frontier, on which they dreamed of implementing a new, colonial project that would break with they saw as the failure of the already existing Caucasian imperial project; this project can be examined in the light of the imperial administration of the region of Kars. In trying (and failing) to implement this colonial fantasy of the frontier, the Russian imperial authorities pursued policies that were deeply entangled with those of the Ottoman imperial state and participated in the destabilization and transformation of the region in the early 20th century.

Bio: Dr. Cerovic is a French historian of the Russian empire and the Soviet Union. Her work focuses on experiences of war and occupation in their Eastern European and Southern borderlands in the first half of the 20th century. She is an Associate Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France and a researcher at the Center for Russian, Caucasian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies (CERCEC).