Subimperial Sovereignty as a Technology of Power: the Case of Bessarabia and the Kingdom of Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1644-857X.23.02.08

Keywords:

autonomy, Bessarabia, empire, Kingdom of Poland, sovereignty

Abstract

The article endeavours to reflect on the conditions and forms of existence of autonomous regions as specific political entities in the outer parts of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. More precisely, it is based on a comparison of two systems that operated in the post-Napoleonic period within the empire: Bessarabia and the Kingdom of Poland. Both regions found themselves within the boundaries of the imperial rule at a similar time, yet they enjoyed autonomy, had their own laws and political assemblies. The special status of these regions was part of Emperor Alexander I’s liberal experiment and proved to be short-lived, as Nicholas I swiftly abolished any semblance of limited sovereignty and legal distinctiveness within them. Through an attempt to look at the history of both countries through the prism of categories drawn from current historiographical debates, the article points out the complexity of the category of sovereignty and analyse autonomy as a specific technology of imperial power.

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Author Biography

Piotr Kuligowski, Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

Dr Piotr Kuligowski – historyk, zatrudniony w Instytucie Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

Zainteresowania naukowe: historia Polski i Europy w XIX w., historia idei i pojęć, parlamentaryzm.

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Published

2024-12-30

How to Cite

Kuligowski, P. (2024). Subimperial Sovereignty as a Technology of Power: the Case of Bessarabia and the Kingdom of Poland. Przegląd Nauk Historycznych Review of Historical Sciences, 23(2), 197–220. https://doi.org/10.18778/1644-857X.23.02.08

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