Das Zarenreich

Europe’s boundaries have mainly been shaped by cultural, religious, and political conceptions rather than by geography. This volume of bilingual essays from renowned European scholars outlines the transformation of Europe’s boundaries from the fall of the ancient world to the age of decolonization, or the end of the explicit endeavor to “Europeanize” the world. From the decline of the Roman Empire to the polycentrism of today’s world, the essays span such aspects as the confrontation of Christian Europe with Islam and the changing role of the Mediterranean from “mare nostrum” to a frontier between nations. Scandinavia, eastern Europe and the Atlantic are also analyzed as boundaries in the context of exploration, migratory movements, cultural exchanges, and war. The Boundaries of Europe, edited by Pietro Rossi, is the first installment in the ALLEA book series Discourses on Intellectual Europe, which seeks to explore the question of an intrinsic or quintessential European identity in light of the rising skepticism towards Europe as an integrated cultural and intellectual region.

Am 14. Oktober 1915 trat Bulgarien auf der Seite der Mittelmächte in den Ersten Weltkrieg ein, was letztlich zu großen Verlusten an Menschenleben, aber auch an Gebieten führte. Der 100. Wiederkehr dieses tragischen Datums war 2015 eine Tagung im Haus Wittgenstein gewidmet, deren Ergebnisse nun in diesem Band vorliegen. Insgesamt acht Beiträge behandeln die Vorgeschichte des Kriegseintritts, die Beziehungen Bulgariens zu seinen Nachbarn und zu Österreich-Ungarn sowie die Rezeption in österreichischen Schulbüchern und Ausstellungen. On 14 October 1915, Bulgaria entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers, which ultimately led to great losses of human life, but also of territories. The 100th anniversary of this tragic date was the subject of a conference in 2015 at Haus Wittgenstein, the results of which are now available in this volume. A total of eight contributions deal with the prehistory of the entry into the war, Bulgaria's relations with its neighbours and with Austria-Hungary, as well as its representation in Austrian educational textbooks and exhibitions.

After crushing the Polish Uprising in 1863–1864, Russia established a new system of administration and control. Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864–1915 investigates in detail the imperial bureaucracy’s highly variable relationship with Polish society over the next half century. It portrays the personnel and policies of Russian domination and describes the numerous layers of conflict and cooperation between the Tsarist officialdom and the local population. Presenting case studies of both modes of conflict and cooperation, Malte Rolf replaces the old, unambiguous “freedom-loving Poles vs. oppressive Russians” narrative with a more nuanced account and does justice to the complexity and diversity of encounters among Poles, Jews, and Russians in this contested geopolitical space. At the same time, he highlights the process of “provincializing the center,” the process by which the erosion of imperial rule in the Polish Kingdom facilitated the demise of the Romanov dynasty itself.

By applying a comparative approach the volume focuses on a select group of „empires“ which are generally not in the focus of empires studies. They are studied in detail and analyzed due to a strict concept that takes into account real history and reception history as well. Reception history becomes more and more an important element in empire studies although this topic is still often more or less underdeveloped. The volume singles out a series of such “forgotten empires”. It aims to provide a methodologically clearly structured as well as a uniform and consistent approach. It develops a general set of questions that help to compare and distinguish these entities. This way the volume intends to examine and to illuminate empires that are generally ignored by modern scholarship.