This paper introduces the ERC-funded project “Empire of solidarities: a connected history of private charity across a decentred Romanov Empire, 1855–1914” (EMPSOLID), which aims to recover horizontal networks of intra-imperial aid tying together regions which have often been studied separately from one another. In contrast to previous scholarship, which has mostly focused on centralised, state-led relief efforts or communal forms of philanthropy, the paper will present several preliminary case studies of donation drives and fundraising events in the Baltic provinces on behalf of those afflicted by famines and earthquakes in Bessarabia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, based on materials from the National Archives of Estonia. Through these examples, the paper explores the motivations behind these intra-imperial acts of charity during times of adversity and shares some initial conclusions about the geographical patterns of these networks of solidarity.
