The history of the Russian empire in terms of the contemporary British and American Russian studies

Studying of the Russian history of the late Empire period is experiencing a new upsurge at present. American and British researchers are more frequently turning to the methods and approaches that have been formed in the frameworks of “the new history of the Empire". During the recent decades the history of the Russian Empire of the late XIX - early XX centuries has been the most popular research subject of the foreign historians. It is evidenced by numerous academic papers concerned with just that period of the Russian history published in specialized American and British scientific journals. The author analyzes the most popular scientific trends under “the new history of the Empire" in the contemporary American and British Russian studies: the history of remote areas and periphery of the Russian Empire, the Russian frontier, the problems of Russification and Christianization of the multi-ethnic country, the history of inter-ethnic relations and national identity in the imperial Russia. Today the main purpose of the works of the American and British historians is to overcome the ideologically biased conceptions of the past. At the moment this approach to the study of the Russian Empire history is dominant among the foreign researchers of the Russian history.