Publication date: 8 October 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800085909
Number of illustrations: 15
Reconnoitring Russia
Mapping, exploring and describing early modern Russia, 1613-1825
Denis J. B. Shaw (Author)
Like many European countries during the Great Age of Discovery and Exploration, Russia embarked on policies of state building, exploration and imperial expansion. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the territory under Moscow’s control was about twenty thousand square kilometres. By 1800 Russia’s empire had expanded to some eighteen million square kilometres. Russia had thus become one of the world’s greatest empires.
By focusing on such geographical practices as exploring, observing, describing, mapping and similar activities, Reconnoitring Russia seeks to explain how Russia’s rulers and its educated public came to know and understand the territory of their expanding state and empire, especially as a result of the modernizing policies of such sovereigns as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. It places the Russian experience into a comparative context, showing how that experience compares with those of other European countries over the same period. The book adopts a broad chronological framework, exploring the age between 1613 when the Romanov dynasty assumed power and 1825, the conclusion of Alexander I’s reign, or what is often termed the end of the ‘long eighteenth century’.
Related titles
Reconnoitring Russia
Mapping, exploring and describing early modern Russia, 1613-1825
Publication date: October 8, 2024
Open Access PDF ISBN: 9781800085909
Paperback ISBN: 9781800085916
Hardback ISBN: 9781800085923
Trim size (hardback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm
Trim size (paperback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm
Like many European countries during the Great Age of Discovery and Exploration, Russia embarked on policies of state building, exploration and imperial expansion. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the territory under Moscow’s control was about twenty thousand square kilometres. By 1800 Russia’s empire had expanded to some eighteen million square kilometres. Russia had thus become one of the world’s greatest empires.
By focusing on such geographical practices as exploring, observing, describing, mapping and similar activities, Reconnoitring Russia seeks to explain how Russia’s rulers and its educated public came to know and understand the territory of their expanding state and empire, especially as a result of the modernizing policies of such sovereigns as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. It places the Russian experience into a comparative context, showing how that experience compares with those of other European countries over the same period. The book adopts a broad chronological framework, exploring the age between 1613 when the Romanov dynasty assumed power and 1825, the conclusion of Alexander I’s reign, or what is often termed the end of the ‘long eighteenth century’.
‘There is no doubt that “the geographical exploration and survey of the vast spaces of Eurasia, pioneered by Russians, Germans and others, forms an important chapter in the history of European imperialism and of European geographical endeavour … all too frequently overlooked”… Shaw’s excellent book provides this hitherto-missing chapter.’
The Russian Review
‘An important introduction to… the range of disciplines that Shaw has brought together in his conceptual framework. It will be of particular use to college and graduate students, who will also appreciate its two-page glossary. Professional historians will value the book as a synthesizing work in historical geography aligned with the postcolonial theoretical framework. It offers a concise and insightful overview of the diverse lines of inquiry related to the conceptualization of space in early modern Russia.’
Ab Imperio
‘a concise and insightful overview of the diverse lines of inquiry related to the conceptualization of space in early modern Russia’
Ab Imperio
‘Shaw masterfully chronicles Russia’s rapid accumulation of geographical knowledge in the eighteenth century.’
Imago Mundi
‘Shaw’s monograph is a valuable contribution—digestible for those coming new to the subject, while simultaneously containing thoughtful, erudite analysis and interesting nuggets for those more versed in the subject.’
Cahiers d’histoire russe, est-européenne, caucasienne et centrasiatique
‘Denis Shaw has produced an admirably balanced and informative account of the Russian Empire’s geographical achievements in the eighteenth century … Reconnoitring Russia is an impressive work of scholarship and will serve as an indispensable reference for years to come.’
ВИВЛIОθИКА E-Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies
‘Shaw’s book gives valuable context that situates Russian imagined geographies that are alive and well in our time’
Slavic Review
‘Reconnoitring Russia offers numerous starting points for a deeper study of the geographical exploration of Russia in the early modern period. Denis J. B. Shaw deserves credit for enriching interdisciplinary research on the history of Russian geography.’
H/Soz/Kult
‘Reconnoitring Russia is an original contribution to two fields of scholarship: history of geography as a science and practices of exploration, and the history of the Russian Empire. The author was one of the most devoted historians of the geography of Russia and this is the first comprehensive analysis of the development of geographical knowledge in the period under study to be published either in English or in Russian.’
Julia Lajus, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences and Humanities (NIAS) in Amsterdam
