On Saturday, August 14th Professor Brian J. Boeck presented “From Border Guards to Body Guards: The Cossacks in Imperial Russia” as a part of the Russian History Museum’s Second Saturday lecture series.
Throughout the event, Brian Boeck discussed Cossacks as a population dedicated to the service of the Russian empire. The program began with the Cossacks’ frontier origins in the steppes between the Russian and Ottoman empire in the sixteenth century, analyzed their subjugation under Tsar Peter I and his successors, and explored their changing roles in an expanding empire.
Ultimately, the lecture overviewed the group’s unique privileges and crushing responsibilities, weaving together featured collection items from the Russian History Museum as illustrative material.
More on this topic can be found in Boeck’s publication, Imperial Boundaries: Cossack Communities and Empire-Building in the Age of Peter the Great.
About the Speaker
Professor Brian J. Boeck of DePaul University is the author of Imperial Boundaries: Cossack Communities and Empire-Building in the Age of Peter the Great (Cambridge: 2009) and Stalin’s Scribe. Literature, Ambition and Survival: The Life of Mikhail Sholokhov (Pegasus: 2019), a shortlist finalist for the Pushkin Prize for best non-fiction writing about Russia.