Being or Becoming: Imperial Nation-Building and Subjectivity of The Ethno-Religious Groups in the Russian and Ottoman Empires, 1850s-1910s

This research delves into the perception of belonging in imperial contexts within the Ottoman and Russian empires, focusing on non-dominant ethno-religious groups living in both empires, Christians, predominantly Armenians, and Muslims, primarily from the Caucasus region. In contrast to prevailing historiography, this project adopts a bottom-up perspective, exploring the history from the viewpoint of empire subjects. While most of the research in the field focuses on how imperial governments managed the state, overlooking the intricate dynamics between the state and its subjects, this project aims to uncover history from the grassroots level. Using published and unpublished primary sources in Armenian, Russian, Ottoman Turkish, and Arabic, the project investigates imperial nation-building dynamics from the late 19th century to the first two decades of the 20th century. Our hypothesis posits that in empires where the dominant religion aligns with that of the ethno-religious group, elites from non-dominant groups feel secure adopting the imperial identity while also maintaining their own.