Russian Imperial Principles and Technologies of the Management ofEthno-Confessional Diversity and of the Integration of Traditional Socio-Cultural Systems

This article discusses the new monograph by Boris Mironov, “The Russian Empire: From Tradition to Modernity,” which is devoted to the social history of Russia in the imperial period. One of its main characteristics is its fundamental interdisciplinarity and the use of various research methods and strategies. Mironov synthesizes the approaches of social, economic, political and visual history, social anthropology, historical demography, sociology, political science and psychology. I.I. Verniaev, an ethnographer by profession, views this book through the eyes of an ethnographer and analyzes it from the perspective of social anthropology. In his opinion, Mironov succeeded in deeply analyzing the principles and technologies of management of ethnic and confessional diversity and the transformation of traditional socio-cultural institutions. The article discusses how Mironov identifies and analyzes such imperial principles and technologies of management of ethno-confessional diversity, modernization, and integration of socio-cultural systems as maintaining the status quo, the relative autonomy of ethnic groups in the early stages of incorporation of the national borderlands, ethnic and religious tolerance, the use of intermediate symbiotic (neo-traditional, in terms of ethnography) institutions, confessionalization, the predominance of social rather than ethnic assimilation, legitimation and the ennoblement of national elites, their inclusion in the system of governance of the empire, the extension and adaptation of the estate system to include new groups of the population from the national borderlands, the confessionalization of religions, and the empowerment of the clergy through rights and responsibilities in the administrative system. These processes are interpreted in terms of models of traditional societies and cultures developed in modern ethnography, and the manner of their modernization and incorporation into modern society