A New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, 600-1700: From Russian to Global History

Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Note on the Text
Introduction
	Developing a Synthetic Narrative beyond Russian History
Chapter 1: Political Ecology: The Formation of the Northern Eurasia Region
	The Region’s Borders
		An Imaginary Bird’s-Eye View of Ecoregions
		Social Landscapes and Collective Observers
	The Phenomenon of Early Statehood
		Nomads as the First Eurasian Unifiers
	The Khazar Khaganate and the Revolutionary Transformation of Nomadic Society
		The Beginning of a New Political Cycle in the Steppes
		Nomad Politics
		Toward a Nomad “State”: The Impact of the Arab Neighbor-Enemy
		Adopting Judaism
		The Khazar Hybrid Model of Nomad Statehood
	Volga Bulgaria and the Appearance of Early Statehood
		The Bulgars Adopt Islam: A Secession without a Confrontation
		The Bulgar Model of Statehood
	The Cultural Self-orientation of the Region
	Reverse Perspective: The Year 862 in the South and West
		The Abbasid Caliphate and the Perseveration of Historical Lands: Political Disintegration and Cultural Consolidation
		The Byzantine Empire: Political Effectiveness and Social Dynamism
		The “Viking Era” of Violent Encounters
	The Problems of Political Consolidation on “Unhistorical” Lands: The Carolingians
		Elementary Statehood
		Territorialization of State Power through Interpersonal Contracts
Chapter 2: Mechanisms of Political and Cultural Self-Organization of Northern Eurasia’s First Polities: The Formation of the Rous’ Lands
	Rurik
		The Invitation of Varangians
		The Volga–Baltic Trade Route: Cooperation, Interdependence, Protection
		Varangians: Rulers by Contract
		The Whole of the Rous’ Land
		Rous’ versus Rus’
	The Dnieper Route
		Expedition to Constantinople
		Kyiv the “Mother of the Rousian Towns,” and Control over the New Trade Route
		Consolidating Lands along the Route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”
		Circumstances behind the Crisis of the Volga–Baltic Trade
		The Ambiguity of the Tribal Division of the Rous’ Lands
	Confederation of Lands along the Waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks”
		A System Based on a Formal Political Contract
		The Economic and Political Role of the Poliud’e
		The War as Diplomacy
		Cooperation of Primitive Communities as Self-organization into a Complex Polity
		Political Institutionalization as a Destabilizing Factor
		The Disruption of Political Symbiosis: The Case of the Drevlians
		Princess Olga: The Formalization of Elementary Statehood
	The Dilemma of the Sovereign and the State
		Olga and Sviatoslav: Two Scenarios of Power
		Sviatoslav’s Neotraditionalist Body Politics
	The Sovereign as a State Institution
		The Secret of Initial Political Stability in the Rous’ Lands
		The Crisis of 977 as a Disruption of the Demographically Territorial Distribution of Power
		Forest Law as the Reason for Fratricide
	Political and Cultural Consolidation of the Rous’ Lands
		The Resolution of a Systemic Crisis through a Fratricide
		The Retinue
		Religion and Culture
		Organization of Princely Power
		The Emerging Rous’ Lands as a Form of Groupness
Chapter 3: Consolidation of New Political Systems: State-Building in Northern Eurasia (Eleventh–Thirteenth Centuries)
	Political Processes in the Rous’ Lands in the Eleventh–Thirteenth Centuries
		The Veche as a Cornerstone of the Political System
		Scenarios of the Transfer of Princely Power
		Prince Vladimir’s Model of the Harmonious Rurikid Princedom and Its Failure
		Yaroslav the Wise: Consolidation of a Common Space of Persisting Diversity
		An Attempt to Ease Political Competition through Corulership
		The “Overproduction” of Princes and an Attempt to Localize Their Competition
		The Formalization of the Rous’ Lands as a Confederation
		New Regional Political Systems
		Marriage Diplomacy as an Indicator of Political Boundaries
		A Common Space Characterized by Political and Cultural Diversity
	Political Integration of the Steppe
		Nomadic Peoples of Northern Eurasia
		The Nomads’ Strategic Symbiosis with China
		Temuchin and the Rise of the Mongols
		A Balance of Idealism and Pragmatism
		Chinggis Khan’s Supratribal Political System
		The Art and Economy of Warfare
		The Mongol Expansion on Four Fronts
		The Invasion of the Rous’ Lands and Desht-i Qipchaq
		Batu’s Transcarpathian Campaign
		The Peak and Collapse of the Mongol Empire
		The Long-Term Results of the Mongol Invasion
	Lithuania: The Birth of the Forest Monarchy
		The East Baltic Region
		Latecomers to the Rous’ Lands
		Pushing Livonia into the Arms of Catholic Crusaders
		A Recipe for Successful Political Self-organization
		Polarization and Consolidation of the Baltic Peoples by the Crusaders
		The Lithuanian Aukštaitija as an Independent Political Actor in Search of Allies
Chapter 4: From Local Polities to Hierarchical Statehood: Interaction and Entanglement of Competing Scenarios of Power (Thirteenth–Fourteenth Centuries)
	Reformatting the Rous’ Lands
		Northwestern Principalities and the Teutonic Order State
		The Principalities Forcefully Subjugated by the Mongols and Those that Kept Their Independence
		The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality and the New Model of Dealing with the Mongols
		Alexander Nevsky: A Rous’ Prince Turned Mongol Viceroy
	The Formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
		The Demise of the Rous’ Lands Political Scenario
		A Strategic Partnership with Galicia-Volhynia and an Attempt to Integrate the Holy Roman Empire
		The End of the Grand Transition Period
	The Golden Horde and Its Russian Ulus
		Elevation of the Russian Ulus
		The Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s Strategic Self-reliance
		The Golden Horde’s Islamization as Protection against Sociocultural Convergence
		Survival of the Weakest: The Rise of the Appanage Moscow Principality
	The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Galicia-Volhynia, and Their Neighbors
		Gediminas: A Turn toward Reconsolidation of the Former Rous’ Lands
		Algirdas and Kęstutis: Alleviating Structural Contradictions by Dual Rule
		The Halt of Territorial Expansions and the Systemic Crisis of Legitimacy
		The Reset of the Grand Duchy under Vytautas
		A Utopia of Political Unity and Cultural Tolerance: The Congress of Lutsk
	The Grand Principality of Moscow and Its Neighbors: The First Attempt to Gain Independence
		The Practical Usurpation of the Grand-princely Title by the Moscow Prince
		Prince Dmitry Donskoy’s Wars with Illegitimate Golden Horde Rulers
		The Post-Kulikovo Claim to Sovereignty and the Ensuing Backlash
		The Difficult Choice between Power and Sovereignty
Chapter 5: New Times: The Problem of Substantiating Sovereignty and Its Boundaries in the Grand Principality of Moscow (Fifteenth–Sixteenth Centuries)
	Whither the Legitimacy of the Moscow Prince not Backed by the Khan’s Authority
		The Disintegration of the Golden Horde
		The Crisis of Khan-Less Legitimacy in the Grand Principality of Moscow
		Vasily II’s Medieval Drama
		The Sovereign–Vassal Relationships Rearranged and Inverted
		The Reset of the Political Landscape
	The Spatial Boundaries of Sovereignty
		Reinventing the Unity of the Rous’ Lands
		Moscow as the Third Kyiv
		The Ugra Standoff and Moscow’s Symbolic Emancipation from the Hegemony of the Great Horde
		Ivan III: Marrying the Byzantine Legacy
		Improvising the Tsar’s Title
		Moscow as a Herald of Protonationalism
		Defining Moscow as a Civilizational Other
		The Problem of “Otherness” in the Buffer Zones with the Former Golden Horde Uluses
	Institutional Boundaries of Sovereignty: The Kazan Khanate and the Crisis of Vassal Relations
		Treating a Foe as a Vassal
		Modernist Politics of the Centralization of Power
		The Kazan Dilemma
		The New Imperial Policy toward Kazan
		Reclaiming the Golden Horde’s Legacy
	The Construction of the Tsar’s Power and the Problem of Absolute Sovereignty
		Rationalization of the Government versus the Quest for Absolute Power
		Absolute Power that Was Unable to Express Itself
		The Livonian War: When Guns Speak
		International Recognition
		Cultural Distance as a Political Resource
		Oprichnina: The Apartheid Regime
		A Method in Madness
	The Crisis
Chapter 6: The Transformation of Social Imagination: The Seventeenth Century
	Scenarios of Transformation on the Region’s Periphery
		The Anational Qing Empire
		The Hybrid Mughal Empire
		The Monocultural Qizilbash Empire
		The Stable Ottoman Empire
		The Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire
		The Nationalization of Culture and the Social Imagination
		Formalizing Internal Divisions
		The Catholic Counter-Reformation
		The Predicament of Secular Rulers
	The Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Rejection of the “Common Cause”
		The Split in the Political Class
		The Split in Foreign Relations
		The Rise of the Orthodox Christian Ruthenian Knighthood
		The Cossacks
		Of Ruthenian Kin and the Polish Nation
		Jesuit Schooling
		Civil War between the Cossacks and the Szlachta
		The Autonomous Cossack State
		The Union with Moscow
		Civil War between the Lithuanian Protestants and the Crown, and the Swedish Invasion
		The Price of the Counter-Reformation in the Rzeczpospolita
		Liberum Veto and the Crisis of the Politics of Toleration
		The Ideal of Sociocultural Homogeneity and Its Political Implications
	The Crimean Khanate: From a European Power to the “Island of Crimea”
		The Last European Khanate
		The Declining Economy of Raids
		The Archaic Polity’s Vulnerability
Chapter 7: The Tsardom of Muscovy in Search of an “Assembly Point”
	Revolution of the Political Sphere
		Back to Square One: Innovation Masked as a Return to Tradition
		Defining the Domain of the “Political”
		Assemblies of the Land: Autocracy without the Autocrat
		Citizen Bondsman
		The Realm’s Inner Cohesion
		The Beginning of the Troubles
		The First Impostor
		From Impostor to Tsar
		From Tsar to Rumored Impostor
		Self-nominated “Candidates”
		Impostors as Systemic Politics
		A Tale of Two Capitals: Coexisting Political Alternatives
		In Search of an “Assembly Point”
		The Common Enemy as the Foundation for Societal Self-organization
		Lessons of the Crisis and a New Political Beginning
	The Beginning of Northern Eurasia’s Integration
		The Discovery of Siberia
		Siberian Encounters: The Stroganovs, the Siberian Khans, and the Cossacks
		Siberia’s Active Conquest and Resistance
		Colonization: Collaboration, Violence, and Tensions between the Tsardom and Its Colonial Agents
		Finding Siberia’s Boundaries: The Amur Expeditions and the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk
		“Archaic” Colonization, the Integration of Northern Eurasia, and the Construction of Siberia as a Region
	The Church Schism as a Step toward Unification
		The Zealots of Piety
		The Model for the Ideal Church
		Nikon’s Reforms
		The Schism
		Nikon’s Challenge to Secular Power
		Little, Great, and White Russias: An Invention of Tradition
		Ukrainian Clerics and the Moscow “Counter-Reformation”
		The Old Belief
		Unification and Hybridity in Northern Eurasia
Index