May 29, 2015

History professor Elena Campbell publishes book on Russia and the ‘Muslim question’

Elena I. Campbell, a University of Washington associate professor of history, has published her first book, which studies Russia’s policies toward Muslims in the 19^th and 20^th centuries and the impact of the “Muslim Question” on the modernizing path the country would follow. “The Muslim Question and Russian Imperial Governance” was published early this spring by Indiana University Press.

“From the time of the Crimean War through the fall of the Tsar, the question of what to do about the Russian Empire’s large Muslim population was a highly contested issue among educated Russians both inside and outside the government,” advance notes for the book state.

“(T)he Muslim Question comprised a complex set of ideas and concerns that centered on the problems of reimagining and governing the tremendously diverse Russian empire in the face of the challenges presented by the modernizing world.”