Gizhiga: military presence and social encounters in Russia's wild east

This is a case study of the remote garrison of Gizhiga, in the far east of Siberia, within the context of the historiography of the Russian frontier. Gizhiga was constructed for strategic reasons to secure the land and sea routes between the ports of Okhotsk and Kamchatka. Although some social and economic interaction took place between soldiers and the indigenous population, Gizhiga never flourished. Indeed, when the fishing failed then the population faced starvation. Gizhiga demonstrates the amount the government was prepared to pay to maintain remote, uneconomic, military outposts as part of the defence of the empire through `lines' of fortresses.