“Own Foreigners” in the Imperial Project of Colonial Mediation in the Eastern Suburbs of Russia in the mid ХIХ – early ХХ centuries

The article reveals the content of the domestic discourse of romantic nationalism, in which the concept of 'their own foreigners', constructed by imperial experts, was proposed as a tool to include representatives of the indigenous population of Asian Russia in solving the problems of imperial incorporation of the eastern peripheries.The choice of the temporal boundaries of the study was conditioned by the actualisation of the national consciousness of Russians and the wide discussion of the Slavic question in the domestic intellectual community.In this regard, the product of the discourse of romantic nationalism of the mid-19th -early 20th centuries was the educated society's ideas about the need for cultural integration of the indigenous population of the Asian periphery, which implied the development of an imperial project of colonial mediation, a significant element of which was the involvement of some foreigners in cooperation in the sphere of empire-building.In the course of the research it was established that the circle of potential colonial mediators was not limited to the descendants of titled nobility involved in the practices of administrative management, military activity and educational projects of Russia in the east of the country.The active activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Asian Russia implied the inclusion of the most educated segment of the indigenous population in the work aimed at Christianisation and religious enlightenment of indigeneous peoples.It is suggested that the model of colonial mediation implemented by the indigenes in various areas of the imperial organisation of the colonised space was not ideal and had many vulnerabilities.The practices of Russian education and upbringing, broadcast by the actors of the empire in relation to the aliens involved in mediation, had twofold consequences and did not always confirm the fact of acculturation of the advanced alien intelligentsia.As bearers of dual identities, prominent representatives of indigenous ethnic groups independently defined the boundaries beyond which collaboration with the imperial authorities became impossible, which called into question the productivity of their work as intermediaries between the Russian administration and their tribesmen.