This volume investigates the complex dynamics of Slavic settlement and migration across the Russian periphery from the Muscovite period through the Soviet era. The authors, a collective of established and emerging scholars in the field of Russian history, utilize a broad geographical and chronological framework to analyze how the state and its people interacted with frontier regions. By examining the mechanisms of colonization, the text argues that the expansion into borderlands was a defining feature of Russian state-building and social development.

Experts recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of Russian imperial expansion and internal migration. Scholars frequently highlight the text for its geographical breadth and its ability to synthesize complex historical processes into a coherent narrative of state development.