That Savage Gaze

Imperial Russia's large wolf populations were demonized persecuted tormented and sometimes admired. That Savage Gaze explores the significance of wolves in pre-revolutionary Russia utilizing the perspectives of cultural studies ecocriticism and human-animal studies. It examines the ways in which hunters writers conservationists members of animal protection societies scientists doctors government officials and others contested Russia's Wolf Problem and the particular threat posed by rabid wolves. It elucidates the ways in which wolves became intertwined with Russian identity both domestically and abroad. It argues that wolves played a foundational role in Russians' conceptions of the natural world in ways that reverberated throughout Russian society providing insights into broader aspects of Russian culture and history as well as the opportunities and challenges that modernity posed for the Russian empire.