Cartography, autocracy and state powerlessness

The uses of maps in early modern Russia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11939539
AutoresValerie A Kivelson (University of Michigan, autor de correspondencia)
Año1999
Volumen51
Número1
Páginas83-105
Fecha de publicación1999-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaImago Mundi (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-5694 • E-ISSN: 1479-7801
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085699908592904
OpenAlexW2039399533
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas27

Historians have focused much attention on the ways in which the rising monarchies of early modern Europe crushed or incorporated the peripheries of their territories into a uniform and unifying state system. Examination of nearly 500 Russian property‐litigation maps from the second half of the seventeenth century demonstrates that elimination of local power bases need not accompany state‐generated mapping programmes. On the contrary, a quite different and much more evenly balanced process of negotiation and interplay between local and central authority facilitated the construction of an extensive, intrusive state. The maps, together with the legal documents that accompany them, also demonstrate that the Romanov regime— often considered the highest expression of early modern absolutism—frequently found itself entangled in its own laws and regulations. The overview presented in this paper of Russian local maps and the legal context which gave rise to them allows for a re‐reading of centre‐periphery relationships in the Russian tsardom and suggests a new understanding of the rise of autocratic states in general

Absolute monarchy · Archaeology · Autocracy · Cartography · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Geography · Monarchy · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · State (computer science · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Historical Geography and Cartography · History · Law · Mathematics