I am grateful to the Editors of Ab Imperio for encouraging me to develop the ideas in this piece, to Sarah Stein for a very valuable reading of an earlier version of this manuscript, and to Lynn Hunt for alerting me to the work of Mustafa Emirbayer and Chad Alan Goldberg. Any shortcomings are, of course, my own responsibility.
AN INVITATION TO A FORUM INITIATED BY THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS AB IMPERIO AND CAHIERS DU MONDE RUSSE: RUSSIE, EMPIRE RUSSE, UNION SOVIÉTIQUE ET ÉTATS INDÉPENDANTS.
The author thanks Ab Imperio anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. By Mongolia the author understands Outer Mongolia, the territories that fell under jurisdiction of the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) established in 1924. Because of certain political connotations connected with the terms “Outer” and “Inner” Mongolia (Mongolia – a Chinese periphery or “Outer Mongolia” clenched “between the hammer and the anvil”), the author prefers not to refer to Outer Mongolia as far as appropriate.
The publication of the article in this issue of the journal is a result of cooperation between Ab Imperio and Centre d’études des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen (CERCEC, EHESS/CNRS). This article was initially presented in the form of a paper at the workshop “Migrations After the Collapse of Empire: French and Russian Experience Compared” (May 29-31, 2007, Moscow). This workshop was underwritten by the support from The French-Russian Center for Social Sciences and Humanities and other partner organizations. Participants of the workshop explored historical, political, social, and cultural aspects of migration in its relation to the process of constitution and change of the boundaries of civic and national community. As the papers of the workshop are being prepared for publication, the article by Todd Shepard introduces the reader to the range of questions that were discussed at the workshop and calls upon a comparative approach to the phenomenon of moving population and fluctuating political and cultural boundaries at the moment of decolonization.