"In the eighteenth century, the Romanov dynasty cut its vast empire into new provincial subdivisions. These provinces remained the basic territorial units of the Russian Empire until its collapse in 1917, and they were associated with a variety of ambitions. Russia’s rulers wanted their provincial offices to maintain order, gather information, mobilize resources, and answer commands from the throne. Yet at times the provinces were also imagined as places where local forms of civilian society might emerge, including populations that not only responded to autocratic government but actively worked with it to build Russian power and civilization. In this thoughtful new study, Susan Smith-Peter examines this project and aims to revise our understanding of its nature and evolution [...] By pointing our attention to what she felicitously describes as the “era of small reforms” of the Nicholaevan era—and the ongoing activities of voluntary societies at the provincial level—Smith-Peter helps us recover a broad realm of political and social engagement with the idea of civil society, and with ambitions to center that society in the Russian Empire’s provinces." - John Randolph, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in: American Historical Review, April 2019, pp. 779-781
"Smith-Peter argues that the autocracy’s fostering of civil society for economic reasons followed by its rejection of political participation by the civil society it had created caused a rift in Russian society that eventually culminated in the revolutions of 1917. An excellent read for any interested in the development of regional identity and politics in Russia or the USSR." - Samantha Lomb, Vyatka State University, in: New Books Network [full text plus interview can be found here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/susan-smith-peter-imagining-russian-regions-subnational-identity-and-civil-society-in-nineteenth-century-russia-brill-2017/]