Valuable, interesting, and instructive. Khodarkovsky's book is unique in English-language scholarship and fills a considerable gap, providing some real revelations in the understanding of Inner Asian and Russian history.
John Masson Smith, Jr., University of California, Berkeley This excellent piece of scholarship makes a substantial contribution to the field. Drawing on previously unworked archival material, Khodarkovsky shows ... Read morethe Kalmyks as central actors in the politics of Inner Asia.
Thomas J. Barfield, Boston University This book should not elude any serious student of Eurasia, for it makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of the empire-borderland equation.
Azade-Ayse Rorlich
American Historical Review
This book is a piece of solid scholarship which contributes substantially to our understanding of the history of the inner Asian nomadic world and Russia's relations with it.
Yuri Bregel
Slavic Review
One welcomes this book by a scholar who is prepared to tackle the slippery subject of the clash of the nomadic and the sedentary worlds from the vantage point of both.... Michael Khodarkovsky offers a meticulously documented and admirably clear chronological account of Russo-Kalmyk relations within the wider context of Kalmyk society, international relations, and regional politics.
Lindsey Hughes
The Slavonic Review
Khodarkovsky's book is a detailed account of relations between Kalmyks and Russians prior to 1771. To provide greater balance than was previously available, he matches Russian sources with material gleaned from the Ottoman archives, and he provides an initial chapter on the structure of Kalmyk nomadic society.
James Critchlow
Russian Review
Khodarkovsky offers a short survey of Kalmyk society and a larger narrative on relations between Russia and the Kalmyks until they returned to Mongolia in 1771.... The story reminds readers of a pervasive theme of Russian history, the dangerous frontier, on which the Kalmyks were a formidable player in action that included the Crimean and Nogay Tatars, the Yaik and Don Cossacks, and Ottoman Turkey and Poland.
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