The Steppe in History Essays on a Eurasian Fringe

The present study deals with varied impressions about the Steppe domain, taking into account the interconnected aspects of Steppe history, highlighting features of Kazakh and Siberian domains that have relevance outside the Russian mold. The purpose has been to integrate the intertwined histories of the two domains and indicate continuities and discontinuities of two overlapping strands of history-writing, Soviet and post-Soviet. This account is concerned with both Soviet and post-Soviet approaches, the former expressing a predictable set of opinions, the latter questioning them. The stereotypical idea of the Steppe as a region that was the citadel of nomadic conquerors and barbaric raiders and distanced from the locus of imperial power tends to get replaced by positive images of the Steppe as an interactive space that lies on the south of Russia and overlaps with Mongolian and Chinese borderlands. The book argues that the Steppe deserves to be treated as a special category in Eurasian history not because of its Russianized environment but rather because of its Asiatic image.