PIANCIOLA, Niccolò
Associate Professor

Tel.: (852) 2616-8343
Fax.: (852) 2467-7478
Email: niccolopianciola@LN.edu.hk 

Academic & Professional Qualifications

Ph.D., University of Naples, History, 2005
MPhil, University of Turin, History, 2002

Areas of Interest

History of the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union, history of Inner Asia, history of communist systems, comparative history of settler colonialism, comparative history of famines, nomad-sedentary relations in historical perspective, history of forced population transfers.

Publications

  • Books
  • Articles
  • Book Reviews/Review Essays
  • Online Publications
  • Research
  • Conference Presentations

Books:

Co-authored with A. Ferrara, L’età delle migrazioni forzate. Esodi e deportazioni in Europa (1853-1953) [The Age of Forced Migrations.] Bologna: Il Mulino, 2012, 501 pp. (in Italian)

Stalinismo di frontiera. Colonizzazione agricola, sterminio dei nomadi e costruzione statale in Asia Centrale (1905-1936) [Frontier Stalinism. Agricultural Colonization, Extermination of the Nomads and State Building in Central Asia (1905-1936)], Rome: Viella, 2009, 548 pp. (in Italian). Winner of 2010 Best First Monograph Award of the Italian Society for the Study of Modern History (SISSCO)


Edited Books:

Co-edited with P. Sartori, Islam, Society and States across the Qazaq Steppe (18th - Early 20th Centuries), Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2013, 352 pp.

Co-edited with G.L. Bonora and P. Sartori, Kazakhstan: Religions and Society in the History of Central Eurasia, Torino: Allemandi, 2009, 304 pp.

Chapters in Books:

Co-authored with P. Sartori, "Introduction: Towards a Connected History of the Qazaq Steppe", in N. Pianciola, P. Sartori (eds.), Islam, Society and States across the Qazaq Steppe (18th - Early 20th Centuries), Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2013, pp. 9-26.

"Interpreting an Insurgency in Soviet Kazakhstan: The OGPU, Islam and Qazaq 'Clans' in Suzak, 1930", in N. Pianciola, P. Sartori (eds.), Islam, Society and States across the Qazaq Steppe (18th - Early 20th Centuries), Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2013, pp. 297-340.

“Orthodoxy in the Kazakh Territories (1850–1943)”, in G.L. Bonora, N. Pianciola, P. Sartori (eds.), Kazakhstan: Religions and Society in the History of Central Eurasia, Torino: Allemandi, 2009, pp. 237-254 . (in English)

Co-authored with T. Volkova, “Between Migration and Deportation: Protestants and Catholics in the Kazakh Steppe (19th and 20th Centuries)” in G.L. Bonora, N. Pianciola, P. Sartori (eds.), Kazakhstan: Religions and Society in the History of Central Eurasia, Torino: Allemandi,  2009, pp. 255-272. (in English)

“I ‘nomadi’ in Kazakstan: categoria analitica e trasformazione sociale (1920-1928)” [‘Nomads’ in Kazakhstan: Analitycal Category and Social Transformation (1920-1928)] in G. Giraudo and A. Pavan (eds), Integrazione, assimilazione, esclusione e reazione etnica [Integration, Assimilation and Ethnic Reaction], Naples: Scriptaweb, 2008. (in Italian)

“L’Europa degli spostamenti forzati di popolazione, 1912-1953” [Forced Population Transfers in Europe, 1912-1953], in C. von Hartungen, F. Miori, T. Rosani (eds.), Le lettere aperte. 1939-43: l'Alto Adige delle Opzioni [Open Letters. 1939-43. The ‘Options’ in Alto Adige ] (2 vols.), Bolzano: La Fabbrica del Tempo, 2006, Vol. I, pp. 19-44. (in Italian)

Articles:

"Stalinist Spatial Hierarchies: Placing the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz in Soviet Economic Regionalization", Central Asian Survey, Vol. 35, Issue 4, 2016, pp. 1-20. (in English).

"Towards a Transnational History of Great Leaps Forward in Pastoral Central Eurasia", East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2016, pp. 75-116. (in English).

“Dalle carestie allo sterminio? Verso una comparazione delle carestie staliniane in Ucraina e Kazakstan” [From Famines to Extermination? Towards a Comparison of Stalinist Famines in Ukraine and Kazakhstan], Snodi. Pubblici e Privati nella Storia Contemporanea, No. 8, 2011, pp. 68-92 (in Italian)

“Gruppi senza etnicità: alla ricerca delle nazioni in Asia Centrale, 1917-1924” [Groups without Ethnicity: Looking for Nations in Central Asia, 1917-1924], Storica, Vol. XV, No. 43-44-45, 2009, pp. 257-311. (in Italian)

“Esili incrociati. Percorsi tra la Russia sovietica e l’Asia Centrale, 1920-1938” [Crossed Exiles. Paths between Soviet Russia and Central Asia, 1920-1938], Parolechiave, 41, 2009, pp. 159-178. (in Italian)

“Décoloniser l’Asie Centrale? Bolcheviks et colons au Semireč’e (1920-1922)” [Decolonizing Central Asia? Bolsheviks and Settlers in Semirech’e (1920-1922)],  Cahiers du monde russe, Vol. 49, No. 1, 2008, pp. 101-143. (in French)

Co-authored with P. Sartori, “Waqf in Turkestan. The Colonial Legacy and the Fate of an Islamic Institution in Early Soviet Central Asia (1917-1924)”, Central Asian Survey, Vol. 26, No. 4, 2007, pp. 475-498. (in English)

“Famine in the Steppe. The Collectivization of Agriculture and the Kazak Herdsmen, 1928-1934”, Cahiers du monde russe, Vol. 45, Nos. 1-2, 2004, pp. 137-192. (in English)

Partially reprinted and translated as:

“Kazachskie skotovody meždu kollektivizaciej i golodom, 1928-1934 gg.” [The Kazakh Herdsmen between Collectivization and Famine], in D. Furman (ed.), Kazakhstan i Rossija (obščestva i gosudarstva) [Kazakhstan and Russia: Societies and States], Moscow: Progress-Prava čeloveka, 2004. (in Russian)

“The Collectivization Famine in Kazakhstan, 1931-1933”, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. XXV, Nos. 3/4, 2001 (subsequently reprinted in H. Hryn (ed.) Hunger by Design: The Great Ukrainian Famine and Its Soviet Context, Cambridge, MA, 2009, pp. 103-116). (in English)

 

“La denomadizzazione nel Kazakstan sovietico” [Denomadisation in Soviet Kazakhstan], Contemporanea. Rivista di storia dell'800 e del '900, Vol. V, n. 3, 2002, pp. 507-538. (in Italian)

Book Reviews:

I have published reviews in the following journals and online publications: International Review of Social History, Cahiers du Monde Russe, H-Soz-u-Kult, Il Mestiere di Storico, Slavonica.

 

Review Essays:

“Grano e fucili. Micropolitica di una guerra civile.” [Grain and Guns. The Micropolitics of a Civil War], Quaderni Storici, No. 2, 2005, pp. 623-638. Review essay based on M. Buttino, La rivoluzione capovolta. L’Asia Centrale tra il crollo dell’impero zarista e la formazione dell’URSS, [The Revolution Turned Upside Down: Central Asia between the Collapse of the Tsarist Empire and the Formation of the USSR ], Naples, 2003. (in Italian)

Online Publications:

Hypertext “Forced Population Displacements”,  in  “Museo virtuale delle intolleranze e degli stermini” [Virtual Museum of Intolerances and Exterminations].

Research:

The research for my first book focused on the relations between immigrant Slavic peasants in Central Asia, local pastoralists (Kazakhs and Kyrgyz) and the state from the late Tsarist Empire to Stalinism. The resulting monograph, Stalinismo di frontiera. Colonizzazione agricola, sterminio dei nomadi e costruzione statale in Asia Centrale (1905-1936), investigates the historical background of the great famine in Kazakhstan in 1931-33, one of the worst man-made catastrophes of the twentieth century. After dealing with peasant immigration in the Kazakh steppe during late Tsarism,the revolt of 1916 in Central Asia, early Soviet decolonization policies, and Stalinist “revolution from above”, it highlights the causes and patterns of development of the famine. The book is based on extensive research in provincial, republican and central archives in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and outlines the ambiguous policies of neocolonization and decolonization of the early Soviet state in Central Asia.


I have also studied the policies of forced population transfers during periods of war, revolution and competitive state-building in the twentieth century. I recently published a co-authored book on the topic covering East-Central Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, the Caucasus and Soviet Asia (1850s-1950s).

Conference Presentation:

“OGPU Documents about Kazakh Anti-Collectivization Revolts (1930-1931): Religion as a Police Category“, paper presented at the international conference “Religion and Society in Central Eurasia: New Sources for the Religious History of Kazakhstan”, Venice, Italy October 29-30, 2009.

“A "Modernization" Crisis? The Famine in Kazakhstan and the Soviet State, 1931-33”, paper presented at the international workshop “The History of the Great Leap Famines”, University of Melbourne, Australia, March 18-19, 2009.

“Gruppi senza etnicità: alla ricerca delle nazioni in Asia Centrale (1905-1938)” [Groups without Ethnicity: Looking for Nations in Central Asia (1905-1938)] paper presented at the conference of the Società Italiana per lo Studio della Storia Contemporanea [Italian Society for the Study of Modern History] “The Multi-Lingual Region in European History of the 19th and 20th Centuries”, Naples, September 16-18, 2008.

“Dalla carestia allo sterminio? La ‘rivoluzione archivistica’ e le carestie degli anni 1931-33 in Ucraina e Kazakhstan” [From Famines to Extermination? The ‘Archival Revolution’ and the 1931-1933 Famines in Ukraine and Kazakhstan], paper presented at the conference “Using the Terror in the Soviet Union, 1917-1953”, Florence, November 24, 2007.

“Le amministrazioni zarista e sovietica di fronte al problema del waqf in Turkestan (1900-1930)” [Tsarist and Soviet Administrations and the Problem of waqf in Turkestan (1900-1930)], paper presented at the conference of the Società Italiana per lo Studio della Storia Contemporanea [Italian Society for the Study of Modern History], Marsala, September 18-20, 2007.

“Who Were the Kazakh ‘Nomads’? Juridical, Ethnographical and Administrative Meanings of a Category (1896-1941)” paper presented at the conference “Integration, Assimilation, Exclusion and Ethnic Reaction”, University of Venice “Ca’ Foscari”,  Venice, November 22-26, 2006.

“Sedentarization and Famine: a Comparison between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, 1928-1934”, paper presented at the World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), New York,  March 25, 2006.

“Il popolamento coloniale delle campagne centroasiatiche: slavi, kazachi e kirghisi da Stolypin a Stalin” [The Colonial Settlement of the Central Asian Countryside: Slavs, Kazakhs and Kirghiz from Stolypin to Stalin] paper presented at the conference “Caucaso e Asia Centrale. Prospettive della ricerca italiana” [The Caucasus and Central Asia. Prospects for Italian Research], the annual national conference of the Italian Association for the Study of Central Asia and the Caucasus (ASIAC), Ravenna, Italy: December 1-3, 2005.

“Decolonization in Semireč’e, 1920-22” paper presented at the conference: “Dynamics of Transformation in Central Asia – Perspectives from the Field”, organized by The Central-Asia Research Network (CARN), the UK Central-Asia Graduate Students’ Network, the Italian Association for the Study of Central Asia and the Caucasus (ASIAC), and the University of Roma III in  Rome, November 5-7, 2004.

“The Other Great Collectivization Famine: Kazakhstan 1931-33”, paper presented at the symposium “The Ukrainian Terror-Famine of 1932-1933: Revisiting the State of the Scholarship Twenty Years after the HURI Famine Project”, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, October 20, 2003.

“Collectivization in a frontier society: nomads and peasants between famine and forced population displacement (Kazakstan, 1928-1934)”, paper presented at the conference “Central Asia in Transition: Models, Breaks, Centrality” organized by the European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS) in Bordeaux, France, September 25-28, 2002.

“Da nomadi a profughi. Collettivizzazione, carestia e spostamenti di popolazione in Kazakstan (1928-1934)” [The Nomads Become Refugees. Collectivization, Famine and Population Displacements in Kazakstan (1928-1934)] paper presented at the conference of the Società Italiana per lo Studio della Storia Contemporanea [Italian Society for the Study of Modern History],  Urbino, Italy, September 20-22, 2001.