Publishing in Tsarist Russia

<p>According to Benedict Anderson the rapid expansion of print media during the late-1700s popularised national history and standardised national languages thus helping create nation-states and national identities at the expense of the old empires. Publishing in Tsarist Russia challenges this theory and by examining the history of Russian publishing through a transnational lens reveals how the popular press played an important and complex Imperial role while providing a soft infrastructure which the subjects could access to change Imperial order. <p/>As this volume convincingly argues this is because the Russian language at this time was a lingua franca; it crossed borders and boundaries reaching speakers of varying nationalities. Russian publications then were able to effectively operate within the structure of Imperialism but as a public space they went beyond the control of the Tsar and ethnic Russians. <p/>This exciting international team of scholars provide a much-needed fresh take on the history of Russian publishing and contribute significantly to our understanding of print media language and empire from the 18th to 20th centuries. <i>Publishing in Tsarist Russia</i> is therefore a vital resource for scholars of Russian history comparative nationalism and publishing studies.</p>