The Russian Empire And The World, 1700-1917 Essay, Research Paper

John LeDonne s book The Russian Empire and the World, 1700-1917 takes its readers through the implication of Russia s geography and how it played part in the formation of its boundaries. The author painstakingly shows the development of Russia over two centuries. LeDonne shows every aspect of Russian expansionism and its political motives behind each expansion. At times the author tells how Russia s geography hinders the development of the country. This book also serves as a tool for looking at the major events in Russian history throughout a two century time table. Perhaps the most accurate description of this book would be that it shows a history of Russian foreign policy.

The Heartland was the mirror image of Russia’s unfulfilled ambitions since the

urge to expand was never completely satisfied. The limits of the empire fell short of aspirations into the Baltic, towards the Mediterranean, beyond the Caspian and through Mongolia. Moving out from its original core to Christendom, Latin and Orthodox, and the Golden Horde, Russia came up against four further cores: Scandinavian, Polish, Turkish and Persian. Adopting forward policies on land, the Russians also, for the most part vainly, aspired to rule the waves. By the 19th century, containment was presented now by six cores: Germany. Austria, France, Britain, China and Japan.

LeDonne gives his thesis in great detail. To the West, three features stand out. The first is Russian expansionism Poland and Sweden grew weaker and opportunities developed for international trade. Secondly, Russia was able to exploit to its own advantage the fragmentation of the frontier, taking over the Ukraine and the Baltic States. The third feature of relations with Russia’s immediate West was a `fortress fleet’ strategy, guarding the empire’s Baltic limits from everyone. To the South, Russian expansionism began to grow. Persian and Ottoman foes were becoming less of a threat. Strategically, Russia worked at keeping the Black Sea closed, a policy requiring a navy that could not only defend its bases but defeat the Ottoman enemy whenever necessary. The Crimean War was only the most glaring among a number of examples of the difficulty of maintaining this policy. The lure of fur and gold took explorers to the Eastern Frontier. But the Trans-Siberian railway and a fortress-fleet stretched out from Kamchatka to the Liaotung Peninsula could not provide sufficient opposition to a now powerful Japan.. Containment by the Germanic powers was weakened before 1879 by their own rivalry for imperial dominance, fomented whenever and wherever possible by Russia. At times, the three Central-Eastern European powers made an accommodation with each other. Russia and the Coastland powers had more space and more resources, especially after America’s intervention.

The first thing noticed would be that he has looked at a few other studies of Russian geopolitics. The impression one will get is that LeDonne was not satisfied with his predecessors. The author picked the time frame of his book very carefully it would seem. Most of his predecessors started with their study of Russia s foreign relations at a much later date. This to the author did not show how Russian foreign policy really came to evolve into what it was in 1917. LeDonne believed that by starting in 1700 when Russian government was still in the Peter the Great dynasty, that he could really show the development from early times of Russia s foreign policy. This broad survey of Russia s foreign relations during the Imperial period: Russia s expansion in three frontiers and its containment by the Germanic and maritime powers. The major emphasis will be placed on learning the geography of the Eurasian continent. LeDonne has filled an important gap. Until this book, there had been no major account in English of Russian foreign policy from Peter the Great to Lenin. LeDonne orders this large expanse of history by tracing the outward movement of Russia against neighboring empires.. He takes his inspiration from the geopoliticians Sir Halford Mackinder and Admiral Alfred T. Mahan. This allows LeDonne to reduce the history of Russian foreign policy to a neat pattern of expansion and containment.

In relation to this class this book is an excellent tool for showing geography and how it relates to Russia s foreign policy. All though this book is quite a read it does possess many good qualities for researching Russia. Its breakdown of the over two centuries that it covers is somewhat muddled though. LeDonne takes the time line and breaks it up very unevenly sometimes covering a whole century in one chapter. Perhaps this book could have accomplished its thesis better in a multiple volume book instead of trying to cram all of the information into the limitations of one book. Also if it were broken up it would probably be a little easier to read. With the technical terminology that the author uses a multi-volume work would probably satisfy the readers even more.