A Companion To Russian History

Description

This companion comprises 28 essays by international scholars offering an analytical overview of the development of Russian history from the earliest Slavs through to the present day. Includes essays by both prominent and emerging scholars from Russia, Great Britain, the US, and CanadaAnalyzes the entire sweep of Russian history from debates over how to identify the earliest Slavs, through the Yeltsin Era, and future prospects for post-Soviet RussiaOffers an extensive review of the medieval period, religion, culture, and the experiences of ordinary peopleOffers a balanced review of both traditional and cutting-edge topics, demonstrating the range and dynamism of the field

Reviews

"As a companion for a journey across Russian history, this book is entertaining, clever and varied, brilliant at its best, and able to speak simultaneously and with authority to all kinds of students, general readers and specialists. Yet it has an eclectic air about it." ("Slavonic and East European Review", 2 April 2011)"Read from cover to cover, "A Companion to Russian History" will be of enormous value to those who teach survey courses in Russian history, to graduate students preparing for comprehensive exams in Russian history, or simply anyone who wants to get current with trends in the field." ("The Russian Review", 2010)."..Recommended as an up-to-date and well written guide to many important issues in Russian history, likely to be useful to everyone from senior school pupils to scholars seeking guidance in unfamiliar fields." ("Reviews in History", April 2010)

Author description

Abbott Gleason is Keeney Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, where he has served as Chairman of the History Department and Director of the Watson Institute from 2000-2001. In 1995 he served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. In 1980-82 he was Director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC and was subsequently chosen Chairman of its Board of Advisers.

Table of contents

Notes on Contributors x

1 Russian Historiography after the Fall 1 Abbott Gleason

PART I RUS : THE EARLY EAST SLAVIC WORLD 15

2 From "Proto-Slavs" to Proto-State 17 P. M. Barford

3 The First East Slavic State 34 Janet Martin

4 Rus and the Byzantine Empire 51 George Majeska

5 The Mongols and Rus : Eight Paradigms 66 Donald Ostrowski

PART II TO MUSCOVY AND BEYOND 87

6 Muscovite Political Culture 89 Nancy Shields Kollmann

7 Slavery and Serfdom in Russia 105 Richard Hellie

8 Russian Art from the Middle Ages to Modernism 121 Ilia A. Dorontchenkov (translated by Abbott Gleason)

9 The Church Schism and Old Belief 145 Nadieszda Kizenko

PART III THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 163

10 Petrine Russia 165 Lindsey Hughes

11 The Westernization of the Elite, 1725 1800 180 Gary Marker

12 The "Great Reforms" of the 1860s 196 Daniel Field

13 Industrialization and Capitalism 210 Thomas C. Owen

14 The Question of Civil Society in Late Imperial Russia 225 Christopher Ely

15 Russia: Minorities and Empire 243 Robert Geraci

16 The Intelligentsia and its Critics 261 Gary Saul Morson

17 Russian Modernism 279 Andrew Wachtel

18 Russia's Popular Culture in History and Theory 295 Louise McReynolds

19 The Russian Experience of the First World War 311 Melissa Stockdale

PART IV THE SOVIET UNION 335

20 From the First World War to Civil War, 1914 - 1923 337 Mark von Hagen

21 The Woman Question in Russia: Contradictions and Ambivalence 353 Elizabeth A. Wood

22 Stalinism and the 1930s 368 Lynne Viola

23 The Soviet Union in the Second World War 386 Nikita Lomagin (translated by Melissa Stockdale and Abbott Gleason)

24 The Cold War 414 David C. Engerman

25 Old Thinking and New: Khrushchev and Gorbachev 429 Robert English

26 The End of the Soviet Union 451 Robert V. Daniels

PART V WHITHER RUSSIA? 471

27 Russia's Post-Soviet Upheaval 473 Bruce Parrott

28 Russian History and the Future of Russia 490 William E. Odom

Index 505