Paul Dukes: A History of the Urals. Russia’s Crucible from Early Empire to the Post-Soviet Era. London [usw.]: Bloomsbury, 2015. 272 S., 22 Abb. ISBN: 978-1-47257379-7

Paul Dukes: A History of the Urals. Russia’s Crucible from Early Empire to the Post-Soviet Era. London [usw.]: Bloomsbury, 2015. 272 S., 22 Abb. ISBN: 978-1-47257379-7.

The author of the book, Paul Dukes, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen. In the short description available at the publisher’s website, A History of the Urals is introduced as “the first English-language book to explore the subject fully”. However, the pioneering character is surely not the only merit of Dukes’ research. While relying upon different works on the subject (including those published by local Ural researchers), Dukes is following his own line and creates an original picture, putting the history of Urals into the broader context of Russian history. The very title of the book has twofold associations: “crucible” refers to the processes of cultural integration, which is typical for a “crossroad of continents”, and simultaneously reminds the reader of the metallurgical industry, the basis of military and economic power.

Thus, the book is an attempt of a complex narration of a huge region within a chronology of more than 500 years. Therefore, the author had to choose from the number of important themes and personages to support the explanatory strategies all through the books. Dukes starts the history of Urals from the 16th century, with the fall of Kazan in 1552, the expansion of the Stroganovs and Yermak’s campaign of 1581–1585. The pre-Russian history of the region is given briefly in the introduction, alongside with the history of early Viatka and Novgorod’s expansion to the Northern Urals in the 14th and 15th centuries (pp. 5–7). For Dukes, the history of the “Russia’s Crucible” begins not merely with the Russian colonization, but with the inclusion of the region into the sphere of Russian Imperial policy – indeed, the first chapter of the book is entitled The Arrival of the Russian Empire. Subsequently, Dukes build the narrative around the milestones of Russian/Soviet Imperial history. The Petrine Reforms, the Great Reforms of the 1860s, the Soviet industrialization and the Great Patriotic War – all these major landmarks are making the framework of the book. However, Dukes do not search for the ruptures or breaks, preferring smooth narration of the long chronological spans. Through all the chapters of the books, Dukes strives to follow a uniform narration pattern, starting with the introduction of Imperial politics of the era, then characterizing the administrative status of the region, and finally proceeding to the economic, social and cultural analysis of local processes.

In chapter 2, Tsarists Modernization, 1725–1825, Dukes proceeds with the history of early industrial colonization of Urals: the age of the Demidovs, the mining administration, and, of course, the Pugachev uprising. A peculiar emphasis is made upon the Urals’ participation in the Napoleonic wars and the age of Alexander I. Chapter 3, Reaction and Reform, 1825–1894, deals with the era of the Great Reforms of the 1860s and their impact upon Urals, though Dukes is not stressing the crisis phenomena in the regional economy, focusing instead on developmental benefits which were provided by the turn in the governmental policy (including the arrival of railroad) and the spread of the printing press across the region. Dukes does not focus upon the events of 1917 as well, contextualizing the revolution within the broader historical period from 1894 till 1921, as is evident in Chapter 4, From Tsarist to Soviet Russia. Here, two revolutions and the Civil War are in the spotlight. Chapters 5 and 6 are devoted to the history of Soviet modernization before and after the Great Patriotic War – with the emphasis on industrialization, repressions, and the Soviet nuclear project. The concluding Chapter 7 deals with the history of late USSR and its collapse. In conclusion, Dukes points out that the regional center of gravity moved to the oil and gas provinces of Northern Siberia, and ends his book with the description of Khanty-Mansiisk and Salekhard as emerging cities which replaced the old metallurgic and machine-building giants of the Middle and Southern Urals.

A major challenge for any author writing about the history of Urals is the problem of coherency in the narration that covers the colossal territory. What does the author understand while talking of “Urals”? In the very first pages of Russia’s Crucible, the Urals is introduced as the zone of “mining-industrial culture” (p. 1). Yet its borders remain unclear: Urals is a “historical entity”, a “centre for the metallurgical industry from the eighteenth century onwards, as a crucible of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, before the search for oil and gas shifted the focus of attention to the north” (p. 4). A worthy notion! Dukes promptly demonstrates the differences between the present-day administrative (Ural Federal District) and economic (so-called Ural Economic Region) mapping. The maps, which are included into the book, are showing the administrative delineation of the Urals in three different historical periods (late Tsarist to post-Soviet), with Viatka being excluded after 1917 and Western Siberia added after 1991.

Such a broad understanding surely has its strengths, but in general it remains a serious problem. The story shifts from “mining-industrial” culture to the generic Siberian references, which were characteristic for Russian literature of the 18th – 19th centuries. In fact, beyond the broad understanding of Urals, Dukes mostly adheres to the Ekaterinburg-centered analysis. For example, speaking of the 18th century history of Urals, Dukes makes the following notions: “While Ekaterinburg became significant as the capital of the region, the foundation of Orenburg and Chelyabinsk as well as the expansion of Irbit and Kungur also contributed to its consolidation” (p. 31). This territorial preference allows the author to structure his narration. On the other hand, however, such focus leads to paying less attention to the other parts of the region. It might be too bold to call 18th century Ekaterinburg the ‘capital’ of the whole region! Probably, the comparative analysis of the history of several leading cities of the Urals would be more appropriate here.

But this is a thing to come, since the history of the Urals inevitably demands further specification along the lines drawn by Paul Dukes: the history of an industrial region that stretches along the ridge from Ivdel to Orsk; the history of the Ural Cossacks; the histories of Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, the multi-national Perm Region, and further on, down to the histories of particular cities. However, any of these prospective works – which, again, are yet to be written – would definitely reference the fundamental research made by Paul Dukes, drawing inspiration from this work. And for now, I can only recommend to everyone interested in Russian history to include Russia’s Crucible into the list of must-read books without delay.

Konstantin D. Bugrov, Ekaterinburg