Speaker:
Masha Cerovic
Associate Professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)
Director of the Centre for Russian, Caucasian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies (CERCEC)

Discussant:
Naira Sahakyan
Assistant Professor at the American University of Armenia

The lecture will explore an understudied episode of Russian imperial ambition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1878, following the Russo-Turkish War, the Romanov Empire annexed the regions of Batumi and Kars. Russian military authorities did not regard these newly acquired territories as a mere extension of the existing administrative framework of Transcaucasia. Instead, they envisioned a new colonial endeavor—one that sought to correct the perceived failures of previous imperial governance in the Caucasus.
Rather than integrating Kars into the Armenian province or interpreting the annexation as a step toward Armenian unification, Russian authorities conceived of the region as a space for a distinct and transformative project. Through targeted land and demographic policies, they aimed to establish what Dr. Cerovic referred to as a “Russian Anatolia”—a Russian colonial frontier designed to break with the historical and institutional legacy of Transcaucasia.
The lecture will trace both the ideological foundations and the practical efforts behind this project, offering a detailed analysis of how imperial visions played out on the ground. It will also highlight the contradictions and limitations that led to the failure of the Russian Anatolia initiative, situating it within broader narratives of empire, colonialism, and the geopolitics of the region.

April 16 at 7:00 pm at 31/4 Charents str. Caucasus Institute building, 3rd floor