L'esempio di Poznan : colonizzazione interna prussiana e politiche zariste in Asia

The Poznan Example. Prussian Internal Colonization and Tsarist Policies in Asia

In 1893, when the Tsarist administration started to debate how to organize the settlement of Asiatic Russia, an official was dispatched to Germany in order to study what decision–makers would soon define «the Poznan example». He came back with a report on the «German internal colonization» largely based on Max Sering, Die innere Kolonisation im östlichen Deutschland. This essay examines in detail the reception of this foreign example and its relevance in the tsarist decision–making process, using printed and archival sources. It takes this particular case as a point of departure to discuss more broadly the interplay between legislators’ global awareness and their decisions regarding the Oriental provinces of the Empire. It examines the motives for observing the Prussian experiment and the particular meaning acquired by the notion of «internal colonization» once it entered the Tsarist discourse.

Parole chiave: Impero zarista; Prussia; Russia asiatica; Colonizzazione

Keywords: Tsarist Empire; Prussia; Asiatic Russia, Colonization