Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800

Drawing on sources and archival materials in Russian and Turkic languages, Michael Khodarkovsky draws a complex picture of the encounter between the Russian authorities and border peoples from the decline of the Mongol Golden Horde to the end of the 18th century. Not surprisingly, both sides viewed the other through the distorted lenses of their own societies, but what they saw had important consequences for the evolution of the Russian Empire and the fate of the indigenous peoples.