E dyta M. B ojanowska . A World of Empires

U.S. commodore Matthew Perry’s well-known voyage of 1853, often credited as having “opened” Japan to Western trade and influence, had a close Russian counterpart. Mere weeks after Perry docked at Edo, the Russian frigate Pallada, captained by Yevfimy Putiatin, also arrived in Japan. The Russians’ goal was not to preempt the Americans but to share in potential gains—primarily any treaty ports—that Perry might win. The mission eventually succeeded, resulting in the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda, which established trade relations between Japan and the Russian Empire. In A World of Empires: The Russian Voyage of the Frigate Pallada, Edyta M. Bojanowska explores these events via the travelogue kept and later published by Putiatin’s secretary, the novelist Ivan Goncharov (best known as the author of Oblomov). More than simply providing an analysis of the journey and its chronicler, Bojanowska succeeds wonderfully in leveraging Goncharov’s account—as her subtitle advertises—into a fascinating examination of the “world of empires” of the mid-nineteenth century.

Ancient history · Empire · Political science · Subtitle · Treaty · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy