Janet Hartley, “Taming the Volga: Imperial Policies to Control Nature, People and Beliefs“
Thursday, 30 June 2022, 19:15 CET
Senatssaal of Humboldt University
Unter den Linden 6
10117 Berlin
GERMANY
Introduction by Ethel Matala de Mazza
Comment by Hans Jürgen Balmes
Sponsored by:
The Mosse Foundation
Institut für deutsche Literatur
Humboldt University
Mosse Lectures
Description: This lecture examines the ways in which the Russian Empire (and, to an extent, the Soviet Union) attempted to tame or control the river Volga. First, it examines the economic and strategic importance of the river which led to conflict, conquest, and the assertion of state control. Second, it explains the extent to which control could be exercised over the river and the region though military force, imperial bureaucracy, settlement and displacement of peoples, canal building and economic planning, and by conversions of non-Christians to Orthodoxy. Third, it discusses the significance of ‘cultural control’ of the river. The Volga became inextricably linked with Russia and Russianness, and remains so today: ‘Without the Volga, there would be no Russia’ stated a Russian news report in 2019.
Janet Hartley: Emeritus professor of international history at the London School of Economics. She specializes in Russian history since the 1600s and is the author of numerous books on the subject.
Photo credit: Niels Leiser for the Mosse Lectures