This course is a historical overview of Imperial Russia which scholars have traditionally construed as beginning with the reign of Peter the Great and lasting to the Russian Revolution of 1917. While adhering to the end date of this period, we will begin our investigation of this period much earlier with the rise of the Romanov Dynasty at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Therefore, the course can be seen as a survey of Russian imperial history through the span of the Romanov Dynasty. We shall take this longer perspective in order to discern the continuities between the pre-Petrine and Petrine eras. As revolutionary as Peter the Great was in transforming Russia into a European-styled autocratic state, many of the changes he introduced were actually components of trends already initiated by his Romanov forebears.
In addition to providing a longer perspective on the imperial period, this course also breaks from traditional renderings by broadening the perspective to include non-Russian lands and peoples as much as possible. The aim here is to investigate how the empire was constructed over several centuries, not just in terms of when particular regions were incorporated into the empire, but also how a vision of empire was conceived, articulated, and received by non-Russian peoples. This broader perspective is intended to illuminate the tensions and ambiguities of "Russia" as a land and people, an empire and nation. How did the incorporation of so many different peoples affect autocratic rule, notions of Russian identity, and the formation of civil society? Was there an imperial culture and, if so, what were its attributes? Equally significant, how did inclusion in the empire affect the development of various non-Russian peoples? Assuming an imperial perspective sheds much light on these questions.
Finally, in order to elaborate these perspectives and supplement the secondary readings assigned for the course, I have included primary sources, including excerpts from travel accounts, treaties, literary works, memoirs, ethnographies, and other materials. These facilitate discussion about the themes of the course and promote a deeper understanding of how we write history. Therefore, an underlying focus of the class will be an examination of the historian's craft through critical reading, discussion, and writing.
James H. Billington, The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of
Russian Culture.
Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground.
Coursepack of supplementary readings
Nicholas Riasanovsky, A History of Russia DK40 .R5 1984.
Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime DK40 .P47 1974b.
Russia: A History, Gregory L. Freeze, ed. DK41 .R888 1997.
Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History [MERSH] [Reference: DK14 .M6]
www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/history.html - Metasite for materials pertaining to Russian history.
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Last update 1/15/04 [web links have not been maintained for two years]