Sneeuwruimers op de militaire weg in Georgië c. 1890 - 1900

Dimitri Ivanovitch Ermakov made this photograph, "Snowplowers on the Military Road in Georgia," sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The image captures a large group of people clearing a snow-covered road. In tsarist Russia, the modernization of infrastructure such as roads was crucial for military and economic control of the Caucasus region. But in Georgia, as elsewhere, the work of modernization was often carried out by the local population as a form of corvée labor, a kind of unpaid service owed to the state. The figures here are dressed in a variety of traditional clothes, rather than military uniforms, suggesting that they are not soldiers but local hires. Photographs like this one offer an important record of the social costs of Russian imperialism. Looking at photographs like this, the historian can consult military archives, government documents, and local oral histories to understand the complex relationship between modernization, labor, and social inequality in the Russian Empire.