In Russian historiography, the Moscow School’s paradigm shift from political and legal history to social and economic history was markedly driven by Pavel Miliukov (1859-1943), the late leader of the Constitutional Democrats and foreign minister of the Provisional Government. Russian Historiography from 1880 to 1905 develops a narrative of historical sociology’s advancement through the Moscow School under Miliukov’s influence and provides a window into his decision making as a political figure who based his leadership not on public opinion but on the effectiveness of historical processes.
New Russia begins in 1905-07. A revolution which failed was also a moment of truth. By proceeding in a way unexpected by supporters and adversaries alike it offered a dramatic corrective to their understanding of Russia. In what followed Russian history was to be dominated by the transforming efforts of monarchists who learnt that only 'revolution from above' could save their tsardom and by Marxists who, under the impact of revolution which failed, looked anew at Russia and their Marxism. On the opposing sides of the political scale, Stolypin and Lenin came to share a new image of Russia recognisable today as one of a 'developing society', and to act upon that. While Russia began a new century with a revolution, it is equally true that a new century in world history began with the Russian revolution of 1905-07. Since then a new type of society and of revolution have been evident throughout the world. Most of the theoretical tools to grasp those environments and changes were first set in Russia of the period described. The book begins with the forces and elements which came together in the 1905-07 revolution. It then presents and analyses the urban struggle, the still little known peasant war and the relations between those two confrontations. It proceeds to the conclusions drawn from the revolution by the different social classes, parties and leaders and the way this has shaped Russia's future and consequently of the world today, defining also economics and agrarian reforms, developmentism and communism, liberation struggles and anti-insurgencies.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally, and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the twentieth century. Now, to mark the centenary of this epochal event, historian Steve Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the nineteenth century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s, when Stalin simultaneously unleashed violent collectivization of agriculture and crash industrialization upon Russian society. Drawing on recent archivally-based scholarship, Russia in Revolution pays particular attention to the varying impact of the Revolution on the various groups that made up society: peasants, workers, non-Russian nationalities, the army, women and the family, young people, and the Church. In doing so, it provides a fresh way into the big, perennial questions about the Revolution and its consequences: why did the attempt by the tsarist government to implement political reform after the 1905 Revolution fail?; why did the First World War bring about the collapse of the tsarist system?; why did the attempt to create a democratic system after the February Revolution of 1917 not get off the ground?; why did the Bolsheviks succeed in seizing and holding on to power?; why did they come out victorious from a punishing civil war?; why did the New Economic Policy they introduced in 1921 fail?; and why did Stalin come out on top in the power struggle inside the Bolshevik party after Lenin's death in 1924? A final chapter then reflects on the larger significance of 1917 for the history of the twentieth century - and, for all its terrible flaws, what the promise of the Revolution might mean for us today.
Rather than a centralized state, Iran in the nineteenth century was a delicate balance between tribal groups, urban merchant communities, religious elites, and an autocratic monarchy. While Russia gained an increasingly dominant political role in Iran over the course of this century, Russian influence was often challenged by banditry on the roads, riots in the cities, and the seeming arbitrariness of the Shah. Iran and Russian Imperialism develops a comprehensive picture of Russia’s historical entanglements with one of its most important neighbours in Asia. It recounts how the Russian Empire strived to gain political influence at the Persian court, promote Russian trade, and secure the enormous southern borders of the empire. Using hitherto often neglected documents from archives in Russia and Georgia and reading them against the grain, this book reveals the complex reactions of different groups in Iranian society to Russian imperialism. As it turns out, the Iranians were, in the words of the Russian orientalist Konstantin Smirnov, "ideal anarchists," whose resistance to imperial domination, as well as to centralized state institutions more generally, impacted developments in the region in the century to come. Iran’s troubled relationship with the wider world continues to be a topic of considerable interest to historians, yet little focus has been given to Russia’s historical connections to Iran. This book thus represents a valuable contribution to Iranian and Russian History, as well as International Relations.
Hans Rogger's study of Russia under the last two Tsars takes as its starting point what the Russians themselves saw as the central issue confronting their nation: the relationship between state and society, and its effects on politics, economics and class in these critical years.
No matter how one defines its extent and borders, Eastern Europe has long been understood as a liminal space, one whose undeniable cultural and historical continuities with Western Europe have been belied by its status as an “Other” in the Western imagination. Across illuminating and provocative case studies, The World beyond the West focuses on the region’s ambiguous relationship to historical processes of colonialism and Orientalism. In exploring encounters with distant lands through politics, travel, migration, and exchange, it places Eastern Europe at the heart of its analysis while decentering the most familiar narratives and recasting the history of the region.
Wall Street and the Russian Revolution will give readers critical insight into what might be called the "Secret History of the 20th century." The Russian Revolution, like the war in which it was born, represents the real beginning of the modern world. The book will look not just at the sweep of events, but probe the economic, ideological and personal motivations of the key figures involved, revealing heretofore unknown or misunderstood connections. Was Trotsky, for instance, a political genius, an unprincipled egomaniac, or something of each? Readers should come away with not only a far deeper understanding of what happened in Russia a century ago, but also what happened in America and how that still shapes the relations of the twocountries today.
The great age of Russian philosophy spans the century between 1830 and 1930 - from the famous Slavophile-Westernizer controversy of the 1830s and 1840s, through the 'Silver Age' of Russian culture at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the formation of a Russian 'philosophical emigration' in the wake of the Russian Revolution. This volume is a major history and interpretation of Russian philosophy in this period. Eighteen chapters (plus a substantial introduction and afterword) discuss Russian philosophy's main figures, schools and controversies, while simultaneously pursuing a common central theme: the development of a distinctive Russian tradition of philosophical humanism focused on the defence of human dignity. As this volume shows, the century-long debate over the meaning and grounds of human dignity, freedom and the just society involved thinkers of all backgrounds and positions, transcending easy classification as 'religious' or 'secular'. The debate still resonates strongly today.
