Zootopia: History of the Zoological Gardens in the Romanov Empire

• Applicant: Anton Kotenko, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; History of Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 522242213

The history of Russian zoos adds new perspectives to both Eastern European imperial history and human-animal studies. Zoos were considered modern and global educational institutions in the late 19th century. The animals and the people who founded them, visited them or otherwise filled them with content, enable historians to take a new look at the interconnections between national, social or global intentions of the actors involved at the centre and peripheries of the multi-ethnic empire. Eastern European zoo history decentres the world history of zoos in the 19th century, which until now has been perceived from a strongly Western and especially British perspective. The history of zoos in the Romanov Empire provides an important political and spatial context without which the global history of human-animal relations must remain incomplete. The project globalises the history of the Russian Empire. It focuses on contact zones of animals, hunters and scientists and thus relocates the empire not only within the scientific discourses of the time, but also within imaginaries of savagery and civilisation. Furthermore, zoological history provincialises the Russian Empire in an analytical way. It makes it possible to critically reflect on outdated ideas about the political dominance of the centre. The rulers tried a variety of different strategies to penetrate the vast territories with their idea of supremacy, not always with success but seldomly without violent means. But in addition to the long arm of the St. Petersburg ministers and the rule of the governors-general, there were certainly opportunities for the most diverse groups of subjects to exert their influence and act on their agency. It is above all the zoos on the peripheries of the empire that make it possible to tell this trans-imperial story, in which it becomes clear that political concepts, knowledge, but also animals and people did not radiate from the centre to the periphery alone, but on the contrary, the peripheries helped shape the centre and thus contributed to the vision of the empire (and to the idea of its destruction). Although government officials and their decisions played an important role in the establishment of zoos in the Empire, their main instigators were private individuals who expanded their scope after the great reforms of the 1860s. Therefore, this project shifts its focus not only from St. Petersburg to the peripheries of the Empire, but also from the state to its people (and animals.) History of zoos opens a window into a hitherto unknown cultural and social history of the empire by exemplifying how zoos helped to maintain or transcend existing social and gender boundaries. The entanglement of human-centred and animal history thus contributes to writing an inclusive history of the empire.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Australia, Japan
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Charlotte Epstein; Professor Dr. Takashi Ito
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Anke Hilbrenner