The nineteenth-century Russian imperial state was relatively less transformative in shaping gender, controlling sexuality, and implementing change in marriage and family life in the Caucasus region of the tsarist empire than comparative Western European imperial projects in Asia and Africa. In spite of (and in distinct contrast to) tsarist writers’ condemnations of violence and the subordinate positions of Caucasian women and children in Caucasian family life, tsarist agents who implemented policy and oversaw cases of violence against women and children tended not to intervene in such incidents but rather to leave Caucasian communities to adjudicate matters based upon their own legal systems. While the discourse of empire justified tsarist control as a means to transform the lives of women in the region, in practice women and children in the Caucasus often found the touch of empire to be relatively light on their lived experience. Even when they turned consciously to the tsarist legal and gendered systems for assistance they largely found themselves turned away.
My research rethinks how we understand the form and function of tsarist imperialism and unveils its limits and parameters. Traditional literature focuses on the Caucasian wars and sees the Russian empire as heavy handed and invasive. In contrast, by examining the social and cultural history of the Caucasus through themes of gender, sexuality (adultery cases), sexual violence (bride stealing and rape), and familial structures (blood vengeance, domestic/familial violence, challenges to marriage unions), my work reveals an empire that was largely hands off.
This dissertation finds a new side of Russian empire – one characterized largely by tsarist officials reticent to implement change when it came to the position of Caucasian women in society, to sexuality, and to Caucasian family and married life. The Russian empire championed the use of its legal system to change and reform what it saw as the “uncivilized” Caucasians. In practice, however, it imposed its policies in an inconsistent, haphazard, and halting manner due to a variety of factors which included a fear of inciting local elites, an administrative system that limited the abilities of its officials to implement change, and cultural misunderstandings and ignorance. This dissertation argues that conceptions of gender, sexuality, honor, violence, and justice shaped interactions between Caucasian indigenous peoples and tsarist officials (indigenous elites included) and determined the outcomes of those interactions, often leading to inaction or compromise on the part of tsarist officials, few alternatives for indigenous populations, and little change in Caucasian family life.