Epilogue
The Epilogue discusses the wider usability of the thirteen-point model of modern belonging. It briefly sketches avenues for comparative, inter- and trans-imperial studies across the nineteenth-century globe, starting with the Russian Empire and the case of the Finns. For example, as with the Bulgars, the field of education served as the backdrop, first, for the nurturing of vertical ties of loyalty to monarch and dynasty and, then, for their subtle transformation into horizontal (macro) communal-cum-ethnonational belonging. Institutional and other structural differences notwithstanding, there is a striking similarity of ceremonial channels and functional patterns whereby the cycles of ruler visibility and popular belonging unfolded in the Russian and the Ottoman Empires. Similar processes of mental centralisation, which paralleled other ongoing forms of centralisation – fiscal, administrative, infrastructural and so on, went on in many other state formations across the globe in the course of the nineteenth century.