4. Mapping Etnos: The Geographic Imagination of Fёdor Volkov and his Students

This chapter traces the legacy of Feodor Volkov’s students in their investigations of culture and identity across Eurasia. Volkov trained several prominent ethnographers, such as Sergei Rudenko and Sergei Shirokogoroff, who travelled to very different fields in Bashkiria and Manchuria. This activity was institutionalized in the Commission for ethnographic mapping of the Russian Geographical society which engaged Volkov and his students. The chapter examines the way that cartography was used by the students of Volkov to describe and delimit identities. It argues that ethnographic maps were crucial for etnos imagination. The chapter also focuses on Rudenko’s study of Bashkirs and the fate of his project in the late 1920s – early 1930s.