About the book: 2019 / In the monograph of the French researcher Sabine Dullen, pre-war Soviet history is viewed as the history of borders and border territories. For the USSR, the borders were not only a line of defense against outside influences, but also a front of ideological and military expansion and a kind of showcase of the communist system for the outside world. The issue of borders played a crucial role in Soviet politics and ideology, and the figure of the border guard became one of the key figures for Soviet culture. The author traces how border management practices changed throughout the 20th century and shows the amazing continuity of approaches to border territories from pre-revolutionary times to the present day. Sabine Dullen - historian, doctor of sciences, professor of the department of modern history of Russia and Eastern Europe at the Institute of Political Studies, specialist in international relations and history of the Soviet Union.