The Great Game, 1856-1907: Russo-British Relations in Central and East Asia - Paperback

by Evgeny Sergeev (Author)

The Great Game sheds new light on Asia's political influence on Russia at the turn of the twentieth century.

Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRL

The Great Game, 1856-1907 presents a new view of the British-Russian competition for dominance in Central Asia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Evgeny Sergeev offers a complex and novel point of view by synthesizing official collections of documents, parliamentary papers, political pamphlets, memoirs, contemporary journalism, and guidebooks from unpublished and less studied primary sources in Russian, British, Indian, Georgian, Uzbek, and Turkmen archives. His efforts amplify our knowledge of Russia by considering the important influences of local Asian powers.

Ultimately, this book disputes the characterization of the Great Game as a proto-Cold War between East and West. By relating it to other regional actors, Sergeev creates a more accurate view of the game's impact on later wars and on the shape of post-World War I Asia.

Front Jacket

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

The Great Game, 1856-1907 presents a new view of the British-Russian competition for dominance in Central Asia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Evgeny Sergeev offers a complex and novel point of view by synthesizing official collections of documents, parliamentary papers, political pamphlets, memoirs, contemporary journalism, and guidebooks from unpublished and less-studied primary sources in Russian, British, Indian, Georgian, Uzbek, and Turkmen archives. His efforts amplify our knowledge of Russia by considering the important influences of local Asian powers.

Ultimately, this book disputes the characterization of the Great Game as a proto-Cold War between East and West. By relating it to other regional actors, Sergeev creates a more accurate view of the game's impact on later wars and on the shape of post-World War I Asia.

Sergev is the first to provide an account based on a large number of sources from archives in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Tashkent in addition to those available in London. This unique research allows him to offer not only an updated version of Britain and Russia's struggle for empire in Central Asia in the 19th century, but also a much more nuanced approach that takes into account the experience of Central Asians and Indians . . . Essential.--Choice

An important contribution to the field and offers valuable insights into its complexities. Subsequent examinations of this topic will have to contend with Sergeev's recontextualization of the Great Game.--Diplomacy and Statecraft

A monumental and readable assessment of the Great Game that makes the Russian side clearly intelligible in relation to the British.--Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin

Sergeev is evenhanded in his definition of the game, in his delineation of its stages, and in his ability to view the game in its full context. It is unlikely that any other scholar of the Great Game displays Sergeev's virtuosity with primary sources across several languages and from diverse archives.--Bruce W. Menning, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

--Bruce W. Menning, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College "Diplomacy and Statecraft"

Back Jacket

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

The Great Game, 1856-1907 presents a new view of the British-Russian competition for dominance in Central Asia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Evgeny Sergeev offers a complex and novel point of view by synthesizing official collections of documents, parliamentary papers, political pamphlets, memoirs, contemporary journalism, and guidebooks from unpublished and less-studied primary sources in Russian, British, Indian, Georgian, Uzbek, and Turkmen archives. His efforts amplify our knowledge of Russia by considering the important influences of local Asian powers.

Ultimately, this book disputes the characterization of the Great Game as a proto-Cold War between East and West. By relating it to other regional actors, Sergeev creates a more accurate view of the game's impact on later wars and on the shape of post-World War I Asia.

"Sergev is the first to provide an account based on a large number of sources from archives in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Tashkent in addition to those available in London. This unique research allows him to offer not only an updated version of Britain and Russia's struggle for empire in Central Asia in the 19th century, but also a much more nuanced approach that takes into account the experience of Central Asians and Indians . . . Essential."--Choice

"An important contribution to the field and offers valuable insights into its complexities. Subsequent examinations of this topic will have to contend with Sergeev's recontextualization of the Great Game."--Diplomacy and Statecraft

"A monumental and readable assessment of the Great Game that makes the Russian side clearly intelligible in relation to the British."--Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin

"Sergeev is evenhanded in his definition of the game, in his delineation of its stages, and in his ability to view the game in its full context. It is unlikely that any other scholar of the Great Game displays Sergeev's virtuosity with primary sources across several languages and from diverse archives."--Bruce W. Menning, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Author Biography

Evgeny Sergeev is a professor of history and head of the Twentieth Century: Socio-Political and Economic Problems Center at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of World History. He is author of Russian Military Intelligence in the War with Japan, 1904-05: Secret Operations on Land and at Sea. He was a short-term scholar at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute in 2006.