Abstract:

The growing body of scholarship on Russo-Ottoman relations has until now paid little attention to the border dimension of these contacts. In the Caucasus, Russia and the Ottoman Empire share a border whose role goes beyond geopolitical and military matters. Studying this physical coexistence in the last years of the two empires makes room for a reinterpretation of their common history. By reconstructing local border dynamics in the course of major political events such as the 1905 Russian revolution, it clarifies the spatial logic of trans imperial circulations and influences. This study also allows for a consideration of regional actors and their role in building border equilibrium, frequently more important than the antagonism between imperial powers. Finally, it introduces the problem of time and memory in the shaping of Russian-Ottoman relations – a key factor to the end, as demonstrated by the example of Ottoman occupation of Western Caucasus in 1918.

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