The center's relations with the borderlands in the imperial period at different times and in different regions were enacted in accordance with various strategies. The hypothesis that the Russian metropole swallowed up the periphery's resources in order to secure its own prosperity and consequently hampered its borderlands' development through its ethno-confessional policy does not find empirical support. Close administrative, legal, and economic integration on the basis of mutual advantages continuously lies at the center of the supreme authority's and its government's attention for the sake of preserving the integrity of the empire. For the last reason, they were prepared to make any sacrifices on the part of the Russians. In extreme cases, however, they required that other peoples of the empire also sacrifice their own interests for a time.