Kappeller’s chapter, entitled The Late Tsarist Multi-ethnic Empire Between Modernization and Tradition, focusses on a comparison between two times during the Russian Empire, the late nineteenth century Russian Empire and the pre-modern multi-ethnic empire. Specifically Kappeller discusses how when compared to each other, the changes and constants made to the Russian Empire during the end of the nineteenth century become significantly more apparent. Furthermore Kappeller uses the 1897 General Census document of the Russian Empire in order to accurately explain his argument.
Over the course of this chapter, I found one comparison in which Kappeller made of particular significance. Kappeller, in the chapter, had stated numerous significant differences between the various Russian groups within Russia, such as the Jews, Germans, Greeks and Armenians, had also become apparent within his original comparison. More precisely, during this discussion Kappeller stated how during the end of the nineteenth century in the Russian Empire, particular non-Russian groups were being better represented among the urban population than the actual Russian groups during the Russian Empire in the end of the nineteenth century. Because of this I came to ask the question of how and why did particular non-Russian groups become better represented within the Russian Empire during the end of the nineteenth century as opposed to during the empires pre-modern mulit-ethnic period?
I found Kappeller’s chapter to be rather interesting, in that it provided a completely new way to look at Russia during the nineteenth century. So often we focus on legislature and governmental power, but it was different to look at the nineteenth century in Russia from a more demographic perspective. The chapter served as a reminder that Russia was populated (and still is) by a large number of diverse ethnic groups.
It seems unusual that many regional conflicts were not between Russians and non-Russians, but between the regional low classes and the elite within the ethnic groups. It played into the hands of the Russian center that created coalitions with the unhappy lower classes against the regional elite, thus strengthening the position of the Russian elite in the center.