Issue 3 (92)
| THE IMAGE OF THE ORENBURG-TASHKENT RAILWAY AS A SPACE OF FRONTIER MODERNIZATION IN THE BODROV-POVIRAEV GUIDEBOOK (1908) | |||
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| Year | 2026 | Number | 3 (92) |
| Pages | 44-52 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 94(47)”1908” | BBK | 63.3(2)5 |
| Authors | Lyubichankovskiy Sergey V. |
Topic | FRONTIER MODERNIZATION IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA |
| Summary | Russian Empire. The focus of the study is the image of the railway as an instrument and symbol of frontier modernization, that is, transformation occurring at the boundary between “developed” and “undeveloped” space. The article analyzes the complex image of the railway, unfolding at administrative-political, economic, and socio-cultural levels. From an administrative perspective, the guidebook constructs the image of the railway as the “steel backbone” of statehood, an instrument of symbolic appropriation and administrative structuring of space through toponymic policies and the establishment of new administrative centers. The economic section demonstrates the role of the railway as a catalyst for profound economic transformations — redistribution of commodity flows, decline of traditional trading centers, development of processing industries, and transformation of the agricultural sector. The socio-cultural analysis reveals how the guidebook documents urbanization processes, the emergence of new social groups connected to the railway, and the symbolic appropriation of space through educational and medical institutions, monuments, and toponymy. The conclusion emphasizes the fundamental ambivalence of frontier modernization: the railway appears simultaneously as a factor integrating the region into the imperial space and a cause of the decline of traditional centers, a symbol of progress and a source of socio-economic contradictions. Bodrov-Poviraev’s guidebook is interpreted not as a practical reference book, but as a narrative legitimizing imperial modernization policies in the borderlands. | ||
| Keywords | Orenburg-Tashkent Railway, frontier modernization, historical imagology, N. I. Bodrov-Poviraev’s guidebook, imperial discourse, symbolic appropriation of space, urbanization | ||
| References |
Anisimov E. V. [“The Curious Traveler”: Travel Guides to Russia as a Source of Russian Cultural History of 19th — Early 20th Century]. Nauchnye trudy Sankt-PeterburgskoY akademii khudozhestv [Scientific Papers of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts], 2021, no. 59, pp. 66–79. (in Russ.). Kappeler A. [The Russian Southern and Eastern Frontier from the 15th to the 18th Centuries]. Ab Imperio, 2003, no. 1, pp. 47–64. (in Russ.). Poberezhnikov I. V. [Frontier Modernization in the History of Russia]. Ekonomicheskaya istoriya [Economic History], 2013, no. 2 (21), pp. 18–23. (in Russ.). Popova A. D. [Guidebooks of the Turn of the 19th–20th Centuries as a Source of Historical Data on Everyday Life]. Istoriya povsednevnosti [History of Everyday Life], 2023, no. 4, pp.126–144. DOI: 10.35231/25422375_2023_4_126 (in Russ.). |
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