Was Russia a colonial empire?

Abstract

Starting with a rhetorical question, the chapter outlines Russia’s historical expansion into Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, highlighting the particularities of this continental colonialism and the continuities of colonial control from tsarist to Soviet times. In order to demonstrate where, when, and how colonialism developed in Russia, the chapter focuses first on the building of the many institutions that administered the newly acquired territories and transformed them into external or internal colonies of the empire. This section then enters into the discourses on colonialism and colonization, on Soviet colonialism and decolonization-highly debated topics particularly among Russian historians who at times admit the exploitation of non-Russian peoples, but not its colonial nature. At present, it is argued that the situation in Russia is rather neo-colonial than postcolonial.