This article will illustrate that imperialism in the East included an impulse to promote and foster rather than curtail cultural expression. This made perfect sense for a Russia that was itself an eastern borderland of a Europe understood by many Russians since the 18th century to be the primary source of their own unfolding “enlightenment” and cultural progress.
Melkadze, N., & Jersild, A. (2002). The dilemmas of enlightenment in the eastern borderlands: The theater and library in Tbilisi. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 3(1), 27-49.
