TY - BOOK ID - 131925277 TI - We shall be masters : Russian pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin PY - 2021 SN - 9780674916449 PB - Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press DB - UniCat KW - History of Eastern Europe KW - Russia KW - RUSSIA--HISTORY KW - RUSSIA--TERRITORIAL EXPANSION KW - USSR--FOREIGN RELATIONS--ASIA UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:131925277 AB - We Shall Be Masters is an illuminating account of Russia's attempts-and failures-to achieve great power status in Asia. Since Peter the Great, Russian leaders have been lured by opportunity to the East. Under the tsars, Russians colonized Alaska, California, and Hawaii. The Trans-Siberian Railway linked Moscow to Vladivostok. And Stalin looked to Asia as a sphere of influence, hospitable to the spread of Soviet Communism. In Asia and the Pacific lay territory, markets, security, and glory. But all these expansionist dreams amounted to little. Here, Chris Miller explores why, arguing that Russia's ambitions have repeatedly outstripped its capacity. With the core of the nation concentrated thousands of miles away in the European borderlands, Russia's would-be pioneers have always struggled to project power into Asia and to maintain public and elite interest in their far-flung pursuits. ER -