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Book Cover
E-book
Author Afinogenov, Gregory, author.

Title Spies and scholars : Chinese secrets and Imperial Russia's quest for world power / Gregory Afinogenov
Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (367 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Introduction -- 1. Muscovy on the knowledge frontier -- 2. Seeing China through Russian eyes -- 3. Secret missions, troublesome missionaries -- 4. Scholarship and expertise at home and abroad -- 5. The caravan as a knowledge bureaucracy -- 6. The commerce of long-distance letters -- 7. Frontier intelligence and the struggle for Inner Asia -- 8. Spies and subversion in Eastern Siberia -- 9. Imperial encounters in the North Pacific -- 10. Making Russian Sinology in the age of Napoleon -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Reign dates
Summary "Spies and Scholars explores centuries of Russian spying and scholarship on the Far East. In the seventeenth century, Russian bureaucrats were focused on China and the forbidding Siberian frontier. They relied more on spies, including Jesuit scholars stationed in China. In the early nineteenth century, the geopolitical challenge shifted to Europe: rivalry with Britain drove the Russians to stake their prestige on public-facing intellectual work, and knowledge of the East was embedded in the academy. None of these institutional configurations was especially effective in delivering strategic or commercial advantages. But various knowledge regimes did have their consequences. Knowledge filtered through Russian espionage and publication found its way to Europe, informing the encounter between China and Western empires"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Espionage, Russian -- China -- History
Intellectuals -- Russia -- Attitudes
East and West.
HISTORY -- Asia -- China.
HISTORY / Asia / China
East and West
Espionage, Russian
Intellectuals -- Attitudes
Education
SUBJECT China -- Study and teaching -- Russia -- History
Subject China
Russia
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019045276
ISBN 9780674246591
0674246594
9780674246577
0674246578
0674241851
9780674241855