This article was downloaded by: [Ams/Girona*barri Lib]On: 08 October 2014, At: 08:48Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,London W1T 3JH, UK

Asian AffairsPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/raaf20

Russian Frontiers:Eighteenth-Century BritishTravellers in the Caspian,Caucasus and Central AsiaBijan OmraniPublished online: 18 Feb 2013.

To cite this article: Bijan Omrani (2013) Russian Frontiers: Eighteenth-CenturyBritish Travellers in the Caspian, Caucasus and Central Asia, Asian Affairs, 44:1,109-110, DOI: 10.1080/03068374.2012.760793

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2012.760793

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of allthe information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on ourplatform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensorsmake no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy,completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views ofthe authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis.The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should beindependently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor andFrancis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings,demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever

or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private studypurposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution,reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of accessand use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Am

s/G

iron

a*ba

rri L

ib]

at 0

8:49

08

Oct

ober

201

4

Beatrice Teissier. Russian Frontiers: Eighteenth-Century British Travellersin the Caspian, Caucasus and Central Asia. Signal Books, Oxford, 2011.

pp. 309. Maps. Illust. Notes. Bibliog. Index. Pb. £14.99. ISBN 9 7819 0495

5801

It is an unfortunate fact that British travel literature on the subject of Russia

seems to be relatively little known. In comparison to the closely related

subject matter of the ‘Great Game’ and Afghanistan, travellers who penetrated

more deeply into the Russian frontier territories appear to have been accorded

less prominence. They also seem to be poorly remembered in our own time.

From the 19th century, for example, few will call to mind the Atkinsons’s

travels in Siberia despite their many adventurous dangers. Yet, Alexander

Burnes and Lady Florentia Sale’s accounts of travel in Afghanistan under a

period of Russian threat will come much more easily to mind. This prejudice

even extends to the 20th century. Travellers such as Robert Byron and Eric

Newby are always remembered for their accounts of Afghanistan, but their

travels in Russia seem to have garnered lesser interest.

Beatrice Teissier’s book should go some way to righting the balance. It is a

broad and comprehensive anthology of the writings of British travellers to the

Russian peripheries over the course of the 18th century. It includes a range of

authors, from doctors such as John Bell and John Cook, to merchants (for

example Jonas Hanway, John Elton and Thomas Woodroofe) to the engineer

Peter-Henry Bruce, who also fought in the Russian invasion of the Caucasus

in 1722. The work is divided into sections dealing with every aspect of their

journeys, from the actual mechanics of travel, to descriptions of towns and

settlements, peoples whom they encountered on the way, and further parts

dealing with accounts of history, navigation and trade. The towns and areas

dealt with by the extracts include those which had been held by Russia for a

relatively long period, such as Kazan and Astrakhan, to Daghestan and the Cau-

casus, and even touching on ‘Independent Tartary’ – those parts of Central Asia

which would not fall under Russian domination until the full-blown ‘Great

Game’ in the 19th century.

The particular excellence of this book, aside from the judicious choice of

extracts, is the introductions and commentaries attached to each chapter.

Here, Teissier’s deep scholarship is especially apparent. She is able clearly

and concisely to put the authors and their writing into the context not only of

Russian and indigenous history, but also of British travel writing of the era,

as well as other contemporary Russian scholarship and travel writing. The

work of contextualisation provides the reader a way into the literature, but as

well the means better to value the texts as historical source material.

BOOK REVIEWS: GENERAL 109

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Am

s/G

iron

a*ba

rri L

ib]

at 0

8:49

08

Oct

ober

201

4

The work is full of colour. Striking examples include Hanway’s description of

the way in which pirates were dealt with on the Volga – strung up on a floating

gallows, but hung alive from hooks through the ribs rather than ropes round the

neck – to the travails of the 19 elephants sent in the train of the Persian ambas-

sador to St Petersburg in 1740. At the same time, particularly thanks to the

book’s close coverage of a time in which Russia began strongly to assert

itself on its Caucasian and Caspian peripheries, the reader can discern many

of the ethnographic, geo-political and religious tensions covered, foreshadow-

ing not only the 19th-century manoeuvres of the ‘Great Game’, but also conflicts

of the present day. Cases in point include not only recent tensions amongst

Muslim populations in southern Russia, but also the increasing danger of desta-

bilisation and conflict in Daghestan. Teissier’s work is not only a pleasure to

read, but also provides much food for thought about the past and future of

Russia’s frontiers.

BIJAN OMRANI # 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2012.760793

110 BOOK REVIEWS

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Am

s/G

iron

a*ba

rri L

ib]

at 0

8:49

08

Oct

ober

201

4