When the Magic of Numbers Does Not Work...: A Review of B. N. Mironov, Upravlenie etnicheskim mnogoobraziem Rossiyskoy imperii [Managing the Ethnic Diversity of the Russian Empire

Abstract

The reviewed book of the famous Russian historian B. N. Mironov focuses on the problems of ethno-confessional policy in Russia of the 18th to early 20th centuries. The primary aim of the monograph is to analyze the influence and role of geographical factors on the history of Russia as a whole, as well as to reconstruct and evaluate the principles and methods of ethno-confessional policy aimed at the inclusion and integration of ethnic diversity in the general imperial space. The review highlights the issue of the impossibility of reconstructing the Russian policy on ethnic diversity through the prism of statistics of the late 19th century, and the relationship between the abstract “state” and abstract “local elites”. The example of the policy towards Ukrainian territories shows the controversial conceptual constructions of Mironov, which reproduced the discussion provisions of the Ukrainian national narrative.