SUMMARY:

It has been argued that the Russian Empire failed to integrate the core Russian population under a cohesive sense of national identity. This article explores popular responses to the nationalization process by examining changing ideas of imperial loyalty as they were expressed in the petitions, appeals, and loyal addresses of the Old Believers from the accession of Nicholas I in 1825 to the death of Alexander III in 1894. It finds that national discourse penetrated deep into popular society, but was met with ambivalence and did not provide a means to reimagine the population’s relationship with the state.