British Historian Paul Dukes on the Regions of Russia in the Context of its History

. The article is devoted to the study of the history of Russia’s northern and eastern regions by Paul Dukes (1934–2021), a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Professor Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen. Based on the British historian’s scholarly publications and his travelogue sharing his personal impressions of Russian hinterland, the article presents his understanding of the specifics of the Russian North, the Urals, and the Far East in the history of Russia. It has been shown that the British historian made a significant contribution to English-language historiography by creating an image of the regions that are peripheral but nonetheless very significant for Russia and the world. He worked in the genre of analytical narrative and his scholarship was based upon the works of Russian, Soviet, and Western historians, historical documents, and his own impressions. Historicism, objectivism, broad outlook, comparativism, and the ability to adjust his research optics to micro-and macromodes depending on the tasks and specifics of the study were typical traits of the style of Paul Dukes’ writing. The image of the Russian North was shaped by the personal impressions of the British traveler; as an outside observer, he captured the details and circumstances of the post-Soviet period, which, however, did not spoil the warmth of perception of traditional values and hospitability of the northerners. Path-breaking in the English-language historiography, his monograph on the history of the Urals from the early Russian colonization to the present day reveals to the foreign reader the significance of the largest metallurgical region for the development of Russia and the world. Manchuria in Russian and Soviet history is considered in the context of intense international rivalry.


Introduction
Paul Dukes (1934-2021), a world-famous historian, fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Professor Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen, left behind a rich scientific legacy of more than 20 books and several hundred articles published in Europe and the USA.He had a remarkable breadth of historical vision as well as a rare ability to transform vast amounts of information into vividly written, yet profound studies.Russia as well as comprehension of its historical path took a prominent place in Paul Dukes' scholarly work.
Paul Dukes was born near London on April 5, 1934.In 1951-54, he studied history at the famous Peterhouse, the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge.As a Fulbright scholarship recipient, Dukes defended his master's thesis on American history of the colonial period at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) in 1956.The young man's interest in Russian history began during his military service (1956-58) when he learned Russian at the United Language School in Crail, Fife, Scotland.Having mastered the language and become fascinated by Russian history, Dukes studied for a PhD in Russian history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London (1959-64) under the guidance of Hugh Seton-Watson and John Keep.He defended his doctoral dissertation The Russian Nobility and the Legislative Commission of 1767 in 1964.In the same year, the researcher began teaching history at the University of Aberdeen, where he later became a professor and head of the department.In 1989, he founded the Centre for Russian, East and Central European Studies at the University of Aberdeen.After his retirement from university teaching in 1999, Dukes remained no less active as an historian, as attested by his extensive bibliography.He also remained a frequent visitor to Russia, travelling to Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Arkhangelsk, Orel, Ryazan, and Vladivostok. 1 Paul Dukes.Aberdeen, 2013 Source: photo by E.V. Alekseeva Braudel's la longue durée approach, broad comparisons, and a global perspective in understanding Russian history were characteristic of Dukes as a historian.He proceeded from the fact that Russia is an integral part of the world historical process rather than a country that should be considered "individually," which is often the case in Western historiography.According to the Dukes' conception, the unique identity of the history of Russia was a specific variant of pan-European development.He was convinced that "history is fundamentally an organic process, rather than a conglomeration of interchangeable parts." 2 In all his writings, Dukes advanced the idea that if handled properly, history as a scientific discipline can help solve many of the world's problems.This is perhaps most vividly expressed in his book Minutes to Midnight.History and the Anthropocene Era since 1763, a study on the role of history and the era of the Anthropocene that requires an interdisciplinary approach to the solution of the natural climate crisis. 3His unshakable conviction in the social value of history was followed by the desire to disseminate knowledge about the past among the widest possible readership, among the people who, in their turn, create history with their daily actions.
The past is indeed determined, even though it is extremely difficult to work out precisely what determined it.The present offers choices, though ones narrowly circumscribed by the past.And, in its turn, the future will be heavily influenced by the choices we make right now.The works by Paul Dukes are widely included in world historiography, are used by scholars in their research and in teaching, but the publications on their analysis are not numerous.Among such publications, 5 an article by Yekaterinburg sociologist N. Veselkova should be noted.The author gives a meaningful overview of P. Dukes' book about the Urals, recognizing its author's priority in publishing a comprehensive work on the history of this region in English, which is topically and chronologically wider than the studies of S. Kotkin, J. Harris, and L. Samuelson. 6Unfortunately, the recent publications devoted to Paul Dukes are connected with the death of the historian and, to a certain extent, pay a tribute to his memory7 A special article by V. Goldin and E. Alekseeva analyzes Dukes' scientific legacy as a whole; the authors show the range of the scholar's scientific interests and provide their characteristics. 8he purpose of this article is to present Paul Dukes as a researcher of the history of the northern and eastern regions of Russia, to characterize his vision of the specifics of the Russian North, the Urals, and the Far East in the chronologically-, geographically-and event-wide context of Russian and world history.

Main body
The above description of P. Dukes' general historical views and approaches is important for understanding the specifics of the British professor's study of the historical and recent past of Russia's regions.My historiographic interest in Dukes' works is due to his belonging to those few Western historians who understood that, among other approaches, the history of Russia must be studied as the history of its regions.He specifically referred to regional topics in his later works.Based on the writings of Russian and Western experts, knowing the methodological foundations of their work and being well informed about the factual framework of events, Dukes formed his own images of the historical storylines and regions he studied.My task is to identify their key features, which seems relevant in the context of yet another acute phase of geopolitical delimitation in terms of objectifying scientific knowledge and recording politically non-committed position of the authoritative British historian.
It is important to emphasize that Paul Dukes was not an armchair scientist.He sought to comprehend the past and present of Russia not only by studying historical sources and books but also by relying on his personal experience.Together with V. Goldin, Professor of Arkhangelsk University, a well-known historian and a tireless traveler, Dukes made an interesting trip to the North of Russia in 1997, visiting Vologda, Veliky Ustyug, Arkhangelsk, and several northern monasteries.In his article My Discovery of the Russian North, which was the last to be published during his lifetime and is actually a short travelogue, 9 Dukes described his impressions of the Russian North and the people he met during the eventful trip and characterized specific features he saw in the region. 10He noticed them both in the circumstances of standard academic activities (meeting colleagues, delivering speeches to students, visiting educational institutions, archives, and libraries) and as he got acquainted with the inhabitants and sights of the northern hinterland.The visit was rich in interesting meetings and colorful impressions of historical places where the professor, who had written many works on the history of Russia (including the participation of the Scotsmen in it), 11 every now and then noticed traces of long-term Russian-British contacts.
Acquaintance with the Russian North began with Vologda.Its tuning-fork was hospitality of Professor Alexander V. Kamkin, Head of the Department of Theory, History of Culture and Ethnology at Vologda State University, who invited colleagues to lunch, which the British guest remembered for its diversity and the fact that "much of the delicious meal had been grown by our host, a keen gardener and a local patriot." 12A warm welcome was followed by excursion around Vologda, which started from the city museum, where the British professor was particularly amazed by the collection of icons, including those specially adapted during the Christianization of the Komi people.The Vologda Archive impressed the historian with the diversity and abundance of archival collections.In the cathedral, the traveler noted with his attentive eyes the division into righteous Christians and foreign sinners (easily recognizable by white collars and black hats) on the fresco.
In his notes, he recorded the deliberateness of the northern world, even some sleepy post-Soviet torpor that replaced the times of the flourishing boom of the Russian North.Women doing their laundry in the Sukhona River, male fishermen on its shore, natural food, kindness of random fellow travelers who were ready to treat him with homemade food and forest gifts, traces of history imprinted in churches and streets of northern cities,all this created an image of patriarchal traditional society.Even in the remote northern hinterland, in the vicinity of the Siya Monastery of St. Antonius, Dukes retained a truly British equanimity and a sense of humor so typical of him.
I decided to go for a walk outside the monastery, and was somewhat surprised to find some bears coming towards me on the other side of the road.We passed each other nonchalantly enough.13P. Dukes' interest in the North and the Arctic can be explained by his work at the University of Aberdeen, because considering themselves northerners, the Scotsmen made great efforts to develop relations with the Scandinavian countries, Finland, and the Russian North.
P. Dukes' long-term cooperation with the Ural historians turned out to be very fruitful.He came to the Urals four times, each time deepening his knowledge of the region and expanding his understanding of it geographically.During his first visit to Yekaterinburg, he visited the symbolic border between Europe and Asia and then went to Nevyansk, Alapaevsk, and Verkhnyaya Pyshma as well as the villages of Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha and Koptelovo, which preserved their traditional peasant history.Having "experienced" the Urals, he could reasonably reflect on its regional specifics.In his report delivered at the conference "The Regional Factor of Russian Modernization in the 18 th -20 th Centuries" at the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2013, Dukes pointed to the main differences between the Urals and Scotland as a country that includes 14 regions. 14He symbolically started from a comparison of the famous statements by two national poets: "Russia cannot be known by the mind / Nor measured by the common mile. .." (Fyodor Tyutchev) and "Scotland is indefinable, it has no unity except upon the map" (Robert Louis Stevenson).The result of cooperation with his Ural colleagues and of his trips to Yekaterinburg was the book A History of the Urals: Russia's Crucible from the Early Empire to the Post-Soviet Era15 published in 2015 in England.The author points to the applicability of both meanings of the noun "crucible" ("melting crucible" and "severe test or trial") to the subject of his research, since the Urals produced a lot of metal and overcame many difficulties. 16In his path-breaking work (this is the first book that tells the reader the history of the Urals in English, from the early Russian colonization to the present day), Dukes focuses attention on the Urals taken in its regional dimension and convincingly demonstrates that the Urals is not just a traditional geographical border between European and Asian Russia, but a key region in the economic, social, technological, and military history of tsarist, Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, which contributed to the strengthening of its position in the world.The peculiarity of Dukes' research position is that he considers the region not as the frontier of Europe or Asia, but as a significant part of the planet as a whole.The history of the Urals is "a microcosm of modern world history, moving from hunting, farming and commercial stages through the industrial." 17The scholar explores the history of the region, whose symbolic geographical boundaries in the early stages were Solikamsk and Verkhoturye, and its contribution to the development of the state, starting from the 16 th century and finishing in 2012 (the year the book was written), offering a necessary counterbalance to the stable Moscow-centric interpretation of Russian history, which is sometimes characteristic not only of foreign historiography, but also of our colleagues from the capital.Paying tribute to various merits of the first persons in Russian and Soviet history in the development of the Urals (as an aside, let me note that Dukes devoted many pages in his works to the study of the role of the individual in history, analyzing the activities of representatives of the Stuart and Romanov houses, leaders of the world and Russian revolutionary processes, and leaders of the Big Three during the Second World War),18 the historian emphasizes that statesmen have always relied on their associates, talented and capable henchmen, on those who, like Tatishchev and Gennin, "developed the imperial heritage" at the local level" 19 The history of the Urals is divided by the author into eight stages and is analytically revealed through three waves of Russian modernization (prerevolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet), each of which is characterized through a system of state control, exploitation of natural and human resources, and cultural development. 20Paul Dukes consistently acquaints the reader with the development of the region that was new for the Russians, its technical, economic, and socio-cultural evolution at the stages of creating an empire (1552-1725); tsarist modernization (1725-1825); counter-reforms (1825-94); the transition from tsarist to Soviet Russia (1894-1921); Soviet modernization and the Great Patriotic War (1921-45); post-war reconstruction and cold war (1945-64); the stagnation and collapse of the Soviet state (1964-91); new Russia (1991-2012).The attention of readers (not only historians, but also sociologists, for example) is attracted by a play of scales, primarily regional and national, to which comparative observations about the Russian Empire and the British Empire, about the Soviet and the American industrialization are sometimes added. 21ul Dukes literally "weaves" the Ural topic into the general canvas of Russian and world history.Starting with the arrival of the Russians in the region, he shows how with the development of industry it turned from a periphery into a pivot and became increasingly important for the rising state Russia had become by the first quarter of the 18 th century.Then, unlike Sweden, Poland, partly Holland, and France that were descending, the Russian and British empires were on the ascending stage of their development, and thanks to its unfolding industrial potential, the Ural region played a significant role in the rise of Russian might, aligning it with British industrial development.Thus, in the middle of the 18 th century, two-thirds of the metal produced by the Ural plants was exported to Great Britain. 22aying sufficient attention to the national, economic, and cultural contradictions and difficulties that accompanied the history of the region throughout the entire period under consideration, the British historian remains balanced in his assessments of even sharp clashes, adhering to an impartial narrative, without politicizing and without groundlessly shifting emphasis towards barbarism, despotism, and various kind of infringement of peoples and individuals by the tsarist, and later by the Soviet and post-Soviet state, as is often done in British historiography, which has been meticulously shaping the image of savage and hostile Russia for many centuries.Taking into account various difficulties and challenges to the social development of Russia in the face of external threats, harsh climate, and vast geographical areas allows the historian to conduct his research not opportunistically, but objectively and professionally.
Analyzing Paul Dukes' understanding of the geographical determinants and historical conditions of the formation of cultural and political regionalism in Russia, it is worth noting that, being a resident of an island state, he extended the metaphor of the island to the Urals, perceiving the huge mass of Russian land as an ocean, in which the Ural region appeared as a group of islands, changing their outlines, at one moment shrinking, at another expanding.Using another analogy, he pointed to the pioneers who crossed the North American plains, which also seemed to them to be a limitless ocean.Not only are these comparisons of the Urals with the USA and Europe figurative, but they also emphasize the status of the region and its global significance. 23Contemplating the features of the geographical relief, mountainous in the north and south but gently sloping in the center, the historian calls the "Stone Belt" one of the great world divides similar to the equator or the Greenwich meridian.However, linking geographical features and socio-economic processes, the historian proceeded from his vision of the Urals, considered not as a frontier but as an authentic region, determined primarily by historical rather than administrative community.Throughout history, the state sought to strengthen its presence in the Urals, spreading its administrative and educational systems there, while the inhabitants of the region defended their identity.Dukes noted that it was the least mountainous part of it, the conditional middle of the ridge, that became the most significant center of metallurgy in the 18 th century, the crucible of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union and had remained one of the most important industrial regions of the state until oil and gas "switched attention" to the north.P. Dukes refers to the Urals as the world leader (meaning the volume of output and the quality of the metal produced) in 1761-1801.In this regard, the words of Mr. Foster, the agent for the Russia Company, said at the bar of the House of Commons in 1774, are revealing: The articles we bring from Russia, our hemp, our iron, our flax, are so indispensably necessary to us for every purpose of agriculture and of commerce, that had we no export trade, we would be very expedient we should attentively cultivate the friendship of Russia, on account of our import trade only... without them, our navy, our commerce, our agriculture, are at end; without them, where would be our wealth, where our naval honours? 24phasizing interconnected relationships among economies and cultures, the British historian concludes that "Europe had been good for the modernization of the Urals, and the modernization of the Urals good for Europe.In the last years of his life, Professor Dukes studied the Russian Far East.In particular, he visited Vladivostok in 2017.This region interested him as an object of international rivalry.In addition, the scholar studied the development features of the Far East depending on the influence of external factors and its significance for Russia.His research crystallized into the book Russia in Manchuria.A Problem of Empire, which was completed shortly before his death and published in London in the winter of 2022. 26This is a predominantly analytical narrative, providing an overview of the history of Manchuria with a special focus on the Russian and Soviet factor, which for a long time dominated international relationships in this region.Proceeding from the early colonization of the region, the author considers the importance of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the city of Harbin for strengthening the Russian presence in the region and developing its economy.The researcher focuses on Harbin and the Russians in this city.It is no coincidence that the book is preceded by an epigraph, a poem by Arseny Nesmelov: Dear city, proud and well-built, The day will come, When they won't remember, that you were fashioned By a Russian hand.Let us not avert our eyes From such a bitter fate; Remember, old man historian, Remember us.You will look for what has been forgotten, You will write some mournful pages, And to the Russian cemetery A tourist will drop by.He will take with him a dictionary And read the epitaphs . . .And so our little lamp will be extinguished, Its flickering flame worn out! 27 Harbin, which had grown thanks to the construction of the railway and was inhabited by the Chinese and the Russians, had a distinctive feature of the deep region, which was further intensified during the years of the Russo-Japanese War: it provided shelter for the wounded and entertainment for soldiers and officers waiting to be called to the front.After the war of 1904-05, when Russia and Japan divided Manchuria into northern and southern spheres of interest (Russia dominated in Mongolia and Japan took over Korea), Harbin, the "Russian capital" in Manchuria, continued to grow and develop.The city's cosmopolitanism was visually imprinted in cultural images of the 1920s: fashionable clothes and endless Charleston as well as in lively press and ideological discussions somewhat similar to those in Weimar Germany.
The peculiarity of this monograph lies in the fact that being dedicated to the specific region located in the northeast of China, Manchuria, it presents this region to the reader as a prism that refracted the rays of the imperial aspirations of Russia, Britain, Japan, and the USA.Throughout the book, the author reflects on the nature of the empire, specific features of Russian/Soviet imperialism, and its similarities with and differences from the imperial experience of other countries.P. Dukes draws parallels between the British Empire and the Russian Empire: both of them appealed to the Greco-Roman imperial tradition and in the 17 th century they drove aggressive expansion, led, respectively, by the British "Sea Dogs" and the Russian Cossacks, who conquered the reaches of Siberia.The expansion was encouraged by the new ruling dynasties: the Stuarts (James I became king in 1603) and the Romanovs (Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar in 1613).However, annexation of new territories proceeded unevenly because by the middle of the 17 th century Britain and Russia had faced serious internal upheavals.Yet, the Russians were the first to penetrate Manchuria, and the British, French, Germans, and Americans appeared in the region later. 28Although Great Britain and Russia showed increasing interest in the Far East as the global imperial rivalry intensified, there had been no serious clashes in Manchuria before the railway appeared.However, in the early 20 th century, the unrest in China (the Boxer Rebellion) was followed by the Russo-Japanese War, which had a significant impact not only on the Far East but on the whole world and became, in particular, a prerequisite for the First Russian Revolution.The struggle for power during the years of the Russian Civil War and foreign military intervention was particularly tense in the Far East.In August 1945, the Red Army entered Manchukuo and soon gained the victory that ended the Second World War.The expansion of this region was completed by the Korean War of 1950, which, according to Dukes, convinced Stalin that it was time for the Soviet Union to leave Manchuria.

Conclusion
British historian Paul Dukes made a significant contribution to English-language historiography by creating an image of the peripheralnorthern and easternregions of Russia.Working in the genre of analytical narrative, he based his scholarship upon the works of Russian, Soviet, and Western historians, historical documents, as well as his own impressions, and considered the regions of Russia under study in different contexts, from personal to geopolitical.
The image of the Russian North, created by Paul Dukes, was shaped by the personal impressions of the foreign traveler and reflected the details of everyday life and human relationships in the mid-1990s, and therefore is perceived as alive, warm, patriarchal, and authentic.
The Urals as a region was studied by P. Dukes in a most detailed way: four centuries of its history, economic development, and social and cultural life were characterized by the British historian both in general and in particular.He based his work upon the methodological foundation that had been laid under the studies of the Urals' history by the scholars of the Ural academic school of historians. 29His monograph on the history and modernity of the Urals is the result of a long-term professionally carried out special research into the geographic, economic, political, and socio-cultural determinants and the results of the development of Russia's pivotal region.Path-breaking in Western historiography, this monograph postulates and proves the thesis about the necessity to explore the Urals as a planet-scale region, without reducing its role to the border of Europe and Asia, the European part of Russia and Siberia, the frontier of the Russian advance to the east: "the more the importance of the region to the whole country is realized from the eighteenth century onwards, the less important the question of the Europe-Asia boundary becomes." 30s a result of his research, the author came to the conclusion and recommendation: For this purpose, the combination of brawn (extracting minerals) and brains (making use of them) constantly in evidence from the time of Tatishchev and Gennin, in the early eighteenth century onwards must be fostered, with the maximum degree of autonomy for the Ural region and its inhabitants in order to continue to address the twin task of modernization and the construction of civil society.Only thus, after two failures in tsarist and Soviet times, will the Urals realize their full potential in the context of the grave problems facing Russia and the whole world. 31ssian Manchuria appears in the latest monograph by Paul Dukes as a region of intense international rivalry, a zone of great turbulence for a variegated conglomeration of people of different national, political, and professional background, a kind of a detonator of the largest world upheavals of the first half of the 20 th century.
Paul Dukes left a rich intellectual legacy to historians, showing by his publications a necessity and an opportunity for a foreign scholar to fruitfully conduct a professional non-committed study of the regions that constitute Russia and are its backbone.Historicism, objectivism, broad outlook, comparativism, and the ability to adjust his research optics to micro-and macromodes depending on the tasks and specifics of the study were typical traits of the style of his writing.