The Captive and the Gift

Bruce Grant explores the long relationship between Russia and the Caucasus and the means by which sovereignty has been exercised in this contested area.

Bruce Grant is Professor of Anthropology at New York University. He is the author of In the Soviet House of Culture: A Century of Perestroikas and coeditor of The Russia Reader: History, Culture, Politics.

This is an important and groundbreaking book, and it is especially necessary at this time of ongoing tension between Russia and the Caucasus. Grant squarely challenges the dangerous and persistent stereotypes of the Caucasus as 'naturally' criminal, arguing that idioms and practices of violence between Russia and the Caucasus have developed over time in a mutually constituted relationship. He also forces us to question the destructive potential of gifts of noble self-sacrifice given to unwilling subjects, wherever they occur. As an interdisciplinary and open-ended work, it invites discussion and exploration, and it will be of interest to scholars across literature and the social sciences as well as to graduate students in the Slavic fields.

Austin Jersild:

Grant draws on several centuries of historical writing, literature, political commentary, and film to explore both Russian claims about the implications of their 'gift of empire' as well as efforts from the peoples of the Caucasus to contest this binding generosity. He even interviews contemporary academics and cultural figures in Moscow and Baku and shares experiences from life in a small Azerbaijani village.

Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov:

The Captive and the Gift is one of a very few recent anthropological works that explores the gift as a form of state ideology. History, where the study of gift giving is a burgeoning field, has produced a considerable body of work on gift practices in state and empire building, interstate relations, and diplomacy. The main contribution of Grant's rich and innovative research on Russian and Soviet rule in the Caucasus is to shift the scale radically and discuss how empire 'works through altruism and not just force’ and, specifically, how the taking of lives, lands, and resources was narrated as forms of imperial giving.

Adeeb Khalid, Carleton College:

Bruce Grant investigates the many cultural effects that Russia's unsolicited gift of empire has produced in both Russia and the Caucasus over the last two centuries. Combining fieldwork with historical research and literary analysis, Grant moves beyond Russocentric perspectives through which the Caucasus is conventionally understood. The Captive and the Gift is a remarkable work of cultural history and a model of interdisciplinary scholarship.