SUMMARY

Elena Vishlenkova recalls the emergence of the idea for Anatoly Remnev’s study of the debates surrounding the founding of the first Siberian University. She offers excerpts from e-mail exchanges about Remnev’s study. In her own e-mail, she discusses the interpretation of the Siberian University and its location as a reflection of the mental mapping of Siberia between Europe and Asia. In his response to Vishlenkova’s e-mail, Remnev stresses that his major interest was to explore how paradoxically the interests of authority and of the Siberian regionalists coincided in the discussion of opening the first Siberian University. He also expressed an interest in comparing the case of Siberian University with similar developments elsewhere in the Russian empire as well as in the colonies of the Western empires.