Behind the steppe frontier. The history of the Russian-Chinese border. Urbansky S.

The Russian-Chinese border is one of the longest land borders in the world, but in modern historiography it is given undeservedly little attention. Trying to replenish this gap, Serena Urbanski in his book considers the formation and change of border contours in a long chronological perspective, starting from the 17th century - the time of existence of the front -line territory without a clearly established dream - and ending with the 20th century, when the line of the border has gained geopolitical significance and turned into densely Patround barrier. Having been telling about the daily life of communities on the Russian-Chinese borderlands, the author demonstrates how the states managed to impose control of related, cultural, economic and religious connections on both sides of the border through legislative measures, compulsory assimilation and propaganda.

Seren Urbanski - historian, researcher at the German Historical Institute in Washington and the director of its branch at the University of California at Berkeley.