“Deception begins with trade …” Vladimir Arsen'ev’s Economic Expertise and Challenges of Rationalizing Imperial Diversity in the Taiga

Abstract

The article explores Vladimir Arsen'ev’s rationalization of‎the economic activities that he observed during expeditions in the‎Russian Far East, predominantly in the Ussuri region. It analyzes‎his categorization of the local population, which was derived from‎nonmatching taxonomies and included concepts such as nationality,‎religion, race, and subjecthood. Disentangling this categorization‎helps to outline the main contexts that influenced Arsen'ev, such as‎postwar political and military concerns, challenges of settler colonialism,‎and nationalizing empire. The article shows how Arsen'ev’s‎intertwined life experiences as a military officer and geographer, colonization‎official, ethnographer, and resource-conscious naturalist‎outlined the limits of his imagination and provided the ground for‎his intellectual innovations.