Russia's Entangled Embrace

Russia's Entangled Embrace traces the relationship between the Romanov state and the Armenian diaspora that populated Russia's territorial fringes and navigated the tsarist empire's metropolitan centers.

By engaging the ongoing debates about imperial structures that were simultaneously symbiotic and hierarchically ordered, Stephen Badalyan Riegg helps us to understand how, for Armenians and some other subjects, imperial rule represented not hypothetical, clear-cut alternatives but simultaneous, messy realities. He examines why, and how, Russian architects of empire imagined Armenians as being politically desirable. These circumstances included the familiarity of their faith, perceived degree of social, political, or cultural integration, and their actual or potential contributions to the state's varied priorities.

Based on extensive research in the archives of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Yerevan, Russia's Entangled Embrace reveals that the Russian government relied on Armenians to build its empire in the Caucasus and beyond. Analyzing the complexities of this imperial relationship—beyond the reductive question of whether Russia was a friend or foe to Armenians—allows us to study the methods of tsarist imperialism in the context of diasporic distribution, interimperial conflict and alliance, nationalism, and religious and economic identity.

Stephen Badalyan Riegg is Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M University.

With its focus on changing Russian policies and perceptions, colonialism and the integration of 'natives' in the South Caucasus, Russia's Entangled Embrace offers not only a detailed empirical analysis but, given Russia's invasion of Ukraine, also a thought-provoking discussion that raises uncomfortable questions about the role of ethnic and religious 'Others' in the project of empire-building.

Russia's Entangled Embrace provides an elegantly narrated overview of the Romanov state's encounters with the Armenians that is both accessible and thought-provoking. The use of a wide variety of official state documents and correspondence allows the author to uncover the significant supporting role Armenians played in the tsarist effort to expand and consolidate the empire.

Stephen Riegg's work is a strong, pioneering contribution to the study of the Armenian community in imperial Russia.

Russia's Entangled Embrace will remain one of the foremost monographs on the synchro-nous development of Armenian nation-building and Russian empire-building in the South Caucasus, as well as a very good case study of the maintenance of rule in an empire's shattering multiethnic borderland on the eve of the First World War.

Armed with a rich arsenal of primary and secondary sources, Riegg methodically explains the evolution of this relationship from 1801 to 1914, which is not an easy feat. This careful study will make readers wonder how the Russo-Armenian relationship evolved from then on.

Stephen Badalyan Riegg's case study of the Armenians within the Russian empire clearly demonstrates the fluidity and complexity of imperial policies and relationships. In so doing, this work provides a powerful illustration of the new imperial history's desire to understand empire as a myriad of tensions and inconsistencies, and challenges the reader to think comparatively about the relationships in a multi-ethnic empire.

A must-read for anyone interested in the history of the Armenians or the Caucasus, of Russian domestic and nationalities policy, and of Russian foreign policy. Of interest to academic and general readers alike.

This informative book offers a history of the place of Armenians within the tsarist empire in the long 19th century. It adds to a burgeoning scholarly literature on Russia as a multiethnic empire, drawing on careful archival research to sharpen the understanding of the ways in which the vast empire managed its remarkable diversity.

Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, author of They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else:

Russia's Entangled Embrace is written in fluent, clear, and persuasive prose, giving a deeply textured account of Russian imperial relations with the non-Russians, in this case primarily the Armenians. This excellent book illuminates both Russian imperial practices and empire-making more widely.

Paul Werth, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, author of The Tsar's Foreign Faiths:

This intriguing and well-written book fills an important gap in the historical literature on both Armenians and the problem of imperial rule in tsarist Russia. Riegg's prose is sharp and clear, leavened at moments with irony and wit, admirably describing complex developments and motivations in an accessible manner.