Frithjof Benjamin Schenk. Russlands Fahrt in die Moderne

The specificities of Russia’s path to modernity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century have increasingly attracted historical research. Frithjof Benjamin Schenk’s study of Russian rail exemplifies this trend. The author connects a history of the railroad as a modern infrastructure with changing notions of space in the imperial realm. By using railroads as his focal point, Schenk analyzes the transformation of the empire as well as the emergence of the Russian traveler during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The first chapter describes how the imperial space was consolidated by the building of the first Russian railroads. The elite in St. Petersburg had long seen the lack of control over its peripheries as a threat to the empire. By establishing new connections with the center, the imperial government gained additional control over the European heartlands as well as such borderlands as the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia. As space and time between the capital and the provinces shrank, the rails eventually allowed a new mode of governance. More than before, the center attempted to control the vast provinces. Russian statesmen such as Sergei Witte understood the prospects of “railway imperialism,” i.e., not necessarily territorial expansion but rather a consolidation of the imperial realm that would be advantageous for Russia. Still, as Schenk points out, the railroad was not merely a means of social mobility or economic progress but was also part of the military infrastructure. As such, the expansion of Russian railroads was closely monitored by rival European and Asian powers. It also played a major role in the confrontations with China and Japan and during World War I.

Ancient history · Art · Capital (architecture) · Consolidation (business) · Economic history · Economy · Elite · Empire · Geography · Humanities · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Realm · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies