Russia Was Not an Empire, Poland Was: LeDonne’s Perspective on the Polish-Lithuanian Borderlands

Abstract

This review of John P. LeDonne’s Forging a Unitary State: Russia’s Management of the Eurasian Space 1650–1850 recognizes the author’s monumental effort to trace Russian civil, military, judicial, fiscal, economic, religious and educational policies and institutions that bound the Eurasian landmass in a Russian “unitary state” but criticizes his heavy-handed treatment of the Polish-Lithuanian lands gained by Russian during the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Admitting the complexity of this frontier, LeDonne nevertheless makes little effort to move beyond a stereotypical anti-Polish (and anti-Catholic) perspective on this history, particularly regarding its religious and educational developments. The bold argument of a Russian “unitary state” across Eurasia elides too many complexities and vulnerabilities in this western/southern frontier to be convincing.