An Empire of Others: Creating Ethnographic Knowledge in Imperial Russia and the USSR

of Tolstoy’s first-person writings to the fore, and in detailing his lifelong introspective exertions to fathom his substance and identity and assign himself a mission in life. The endnotes are the work of a seasoned scholar who has an excellent command of the secondary literature and who concisely summarizes key arguments for the reader. A helpful appendix offers the original Russian quotations of key passages, making this work an excellent source for further research.