From Spies to Traitors? Imperial Russia and Its Buriat Agents on the Mongol Frontier, 1689–1850

The Russian Empire was a fundamentally multiethnic state which relied on dynastic loyalty, not cultural or religious homogeneity, to cement the unity of its population. Though frequently faced with revolts by non-Russian peoples, imperial officials rarely saw non-Russianness per se as a significant problem. In some cases this commitment went even further. The eastern part of the frontier Russia shared with the Qing Empire was inhabited by Buriat and Evenki nomads who shared both languages and religious practices with Qing subjects on the other side of the border. In the eighteenth century, Russian officials believed this cultural middle ground was not only nonthreatening but a strategic trump card in Russia’s geopolitical maneuvers. Lacking sufficient military forces to oppose Qing power in the region, they used Buriats as spies and border guards, exploited Buddhist pilgrimage culture for intelligence-gathering, and schemed to induce the Mongols to defect from Qing rule. Yet by the nineteenth century, they had begun to treat the Buriats as an apparent liability and their cross-border connections as a source of suspicion rather than alarm, despite the lack of clear evidence of any disloyal activity on their part. What could have undermined their trust so profoundly? In this paper I will explore some of the factors behind this shift and its longer-term impact on the politics of Russian imperialism in Inner Asia.