GEISELSTELLUNGEN AN DEN RUSSISCHEN KULTURGRENZEN IN DER FRÜHEN NEUZEIT.

This paper examines practices of hostage-taking and -giving in the early-modern Russian Empire as practiced since the late 16th century in the regions of Siberia, the Far East and on the Russian Steppe frontier. The paper investigates the origins of this practice, its cross-cultural meanings and its symbolical and practical issues. The political, legal and cultural situation of indigenous hostages in the Russian frontier fortresses is discussed. The Russian hostage system is compared with practices of hostage-taking and-giving in other pre-modern cultures, such as in Ancient Rome, pre-modern China and the European Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]