From Privileged to DispossessedFrom Privileged to Dispossessed is a social and economic history of the foreign settlers who emigrated to the Volga region in Russia in the eighteenth century. Concentrating on the years 1860 to 1917, a period of rapid change in Russia, it is at once a detailed look at life in the lower Volga valley and a vital chapter in the history of the multinational Russian Empire, assessing as it does the impact of national policy in the outlying provinces.