The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought PDF Download

Author: Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195360613
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
The image of Peter the Great casts a long shadow in modern Russian thought and culture. As important to modern Russia as the French Revolution is to France and the Reformation is to Germany, the image of this militaristic ruler, founder of St Petersburg, and czar of all Russia from 1689-1725 has been central to Russian history, literature, and art since the early 1700s.; Riasanovsky, one of the foremost historians of Russia, traces the development of this image from 1700 to the present. Drawing examples from Russian historical accounts, literature, folklore, and the arts, he shows how the use of the image of Peter has reflected the changing cultural and political values of the Russian people.

Author: David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300162898
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Here, the author examines Russian thinking about the Orient before the Revolution of 1917. He argues that the Russian Empire's bi-continental geography and the complicated nature of its encounter with Asia have all resulted in a variegated understanding of the East among its people.

Author: James CRACRAFT
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Many books chronicle the remarkable life of Russian tsar Peter the Great, but none analyze how his famous reforms actually took root and spread in Russia. By century's end, Russia was poised to play a critical role in the Napoleonic wars and boasted an elite culture about to burst into its golden age. In The Revolution of Peter the Great, James Cracraft offers a brilliant new interpretation of this pivotal era.

Author: Voltaire
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Russia
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Author: Daniel B. Rowland
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501752103
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
God, Tsar, and People brings together in one volume essays written over a period of fifty years, using a wide variety of evidence—texts, icons, architecture, and ritual—to reveal how early modern Russians (1450–1700) imagined their rapidly changing political world. This volume presents a more nuanced picture of Russian political thought during the two centuries before Peter the Great came to power than is typically available. The state was expanding at a dizzying rate, and atop Russia's traditional political structure sat a ruler who supposedly reflected God's will. The problem facing Russians was that actual rulers seldom—or never—exhibited the required perfection. Daniel Rowland argues that this contradictory set of ideas was far less autocratic in both theory and practice than modern stereotypes would have us believe. In comparing and contrasting Russian history with that of Western European states, Rowland is also questioning the notion that Russia has always been, and always viewed itself as, an authoritarian country. God, Tsar, and People explores how the Russian state in this period kept its vast lands and diverse subjects united in a common view of a Christian polity, defending its long frontier against powerful enemies from the East and from the West.

Author: Marvin Kalb
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815731620
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
" A chronicle of the year that changed Soviet Russia—and molded the future path of one of America's pre-eminent diplomatic correspondents 1956 was an extraordinary year in modern Russian history. It was called “the year of the thaw”—a time when Stalin’s dark legacy of dictatorship died in February only to be reborn later that December. This historic arc from rising hope to crushing despair opened with a speech by Nikita Khrushchev, then the unpredictable leader of the Soviet Union. He astounded everyone by denouncing the one figure who, up to that time, had been hailed as a “genius,” a wizard of communism—Josef Stalin himself. Now, suddenly, this once unassailable god was being portrayed as a “madman” whose idiosyncratic rule had seriously undermined communism and endangered the Soviet state. This amazing switch from hero to villain lifted a heavy overcoat of fear from the backs of ordinary Russians. It also quickly led to anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe, none more bloody and challenging than the one in Hungary, which Soviet troops crushed at year’s end. Marvin Kalb, then a young diplomatic attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, observed this tumultuous year that foretold the end of Soviet communism three decades later. Fluent in Russian, a doctoral candidate at Harvard, he went where few other foreigners would dare go, listening to Russian students secretly attack communism and threaten rebellion against the Soviet system, traveling from one end of a changing country to the other and, thanks to his diplomatic position, meeting and talking with Khrushchev, who playfully nicknamed him Peter the Great. In this, his fifteenth book, Kalb writes a fascinating eyewitness account of a superpower in upheaval and of a people yearning for an end to dictatorship. "

Author: Thomas C. Owen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195357140
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
From the three perspectives of geography, economic policy, and ideology, this work examines corporate capitalism under the tsarist and late Soviet regimes. Thomas C. Owen discovers a remarkable history of thwarted effort and lost opportunity. He explores the impact of bureaucratic restrictions and reveals the entrepreneurial capabilities of Russia's corporate founders from various social groups as well as the prominence of Poles, Germans, Jews, Armenians, and foreign citizens in the corporate elite of the Russian Empire and its ten largest cities. The study stresses continuities between tsarist and late Soviet periods, especially in the persistence of anti-capitalist attitudes, both radical and reactionary. A provocative final chapter considers the implications of the weak corporate heritage for the future of Russian capitalism.

Author: Lindsey Hughes
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300094264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"This, the shorter biography of Peter the Great (1672-1725), tells his story from birth to death in twelve chapters, including two final chapters on the Tsar's legacy and posthumous reputation up to the present, with the aim of providing a vivid sense of the dynamics of his life and reign: The focus is firmly on the dramatic, appealing and unconventional figure of Peter himself: his actions, deliberations, decisions, relationships, tastes and possessions. It includes the more bizarre aspects of his character, such as his interest in dwarfs, the use of disguises, clowning and vandalism. The main sources are Peter's letters and papers, both published and unpublished, as well as other contemporary accounts and documents." "The narrative comprises both the public and private life, the life Peter lived as well as his significant fantasy world. Hughes offers fascinating new material on the 'alternative' or 'parallel' history of Peter's many disguises and pseudonyms, his deference to a number of mock superiors, and his relationships with individuals such as his second wife Catherine and his favourite Alexander Menshikov." "In each chapter Hughes explores Peter's image in painting and sculpture, bringing the story to the present day with a discussion of controversial monuments in Moscow and St. Petersburg."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Author: Geoffrey A. Hosking
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674004733
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 776

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Book Description
Chronicles the history of the Russian Empire from the Mongol Invasion, through the Bolshevik Revolution, to the aftereffects of the Cold War.

Author: Lindsey Hughes
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300143745
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
Peter the Great (1672–1725), tsar of Russia for forty-three years, was a dramatic, appealing, and unconventional character. This book provides a vivid sense of the dynamics of his life—both public and private—and his reign. Drawing on his letters and papers, as well as on other contemporary accounts, the book provides new insights into Peter’s complex character, giving information on his actions, deliberations, possessions, and significant fantasy world--his many disguises and pseudonyms, his interest in dwarfs, his clowning and vandalism. It also sheds fresh light on his relationships with individuals such as his second wife Catherine and his favorite, Alexander Menshikov. The book includes discussions of Peter’s image in painting and sculpture, and there are two final chapters on his legacy and posthumous reputation up to the present.