Social Science Research Council

Abstract

The dominant interpretations of the last years of the Ottoman and Russian Empires portray both as being driven by and ultimately succumbing to the force of assertive indigenous nationalist ideologies and movements. The dissertation challenges this emphasis on the emergence of national identities as the primary cause of imperial demise by examining the struggle between these two empires in the borderlands of Eastern Anatolia and the North and South Caucasus. The dissertation highlights the importance of interstate-competition and the global geopolitical order in shaping local political identities and ideologies, imperial collapse, and the emergence of successor states. The dissertation makes extensive use of unpublished archival materials from several Ottoman and Russian archives, in addition to a wide range of printed primary and secondary sources. It will be of interest to scholars of Ottoman history, Russian history, nationalism, and international relations.