Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire

359 Pages·1998·3.83 MB·english

by  Jane Burbank

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IMPERIAL RUSSIA

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Sponsored by the Joint Committee on the Soviet Union
and Its Successor States
of the Social Science Research Council
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and the
American Council of Learned Societies.
indiana-michigan series in
russian and east european studies
Alexander Rabinowitch
and
William G. Rosenberg,
general editors
advisory board
Deming Brown
Jane Burbank
Robert W. Campbell
Henry R. Cooper, Jr.
Herbert Eagle
Ben Eklof
Zvi Gitelman
Hiroaki Kuromiya
David L. Ransel
William Zimmerman
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IMPERIAL RUSSIA
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NEW HISTORIES FOR THE EMPIRE
EDITED BY
Jane Burbank
AND
David L. Ransel
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
www.indiana.edu/~iupress
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© 1998 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
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recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Imperial Russia : new histories for the Empire / edited by Jane
Burbank and David L. Ransel.
p. cm. — (Indiana-Michigan series in Russian and East
European studies)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-253-33462-4 (cloth : alk. paper). — ISBN 0-253-21241-3
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Russia—History—18th century. 2. Russia—History—19th
century. I. Burbank, Jane. II. Ransel, David L. III. Series.
DK127.I475 1998
947′.06—dc21 98-17132
1 2 3 4 5 03 02 01 00 99 98
σContents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction
Jane Burbank and David L. Ransel xiii
Part i
Autocracy: Politics, Ideology, Symbol
1
1
Kinship Politics/Autocratic Politics: A Reconsideration of
Early-Eighteenth-Century Political Culture
Valerie A. Kivelson 5
2
The Idea of Autocracy among Eighteenth-Century
Russian Historians
Cynthia Hyla Whittaker 32
3
The Russian Imperial Family as Symbol
Richard Wortman 60
Part ii
Imperial Imagination
87
4
Collecting the Fatherland: Early-Nineteenth-Century
Proposals for a Russian National Museum
Kevin Tyner Thomas 91
5
Science, Empire, and Nationality: Ethnography in the
Russian Geographical Society, 1845–1855
Nathaniel Knight 108
Part iii
Practices of Empire
143
6
Lines of Uncertainty: The Frontiers of the Northern Caucasus
Thomas M. Barrett 148
7
An Empire of Peasants: Empire-Building, Interethnic
Interaction, and Ethnic Stereotyping in the Rural
World of the Russian Empire, 1800–1850s
Willard Sunderland 174
8
The Serf Economy, the Peasant Family, and the Social Order
Steven L. Hoch 199
9
Institutionalizing Piety: The Church and Popular
Religion, 1750–1850
Gregory L. Freeze 210
Part iv
Individuals and Publics
251
10
An Eighteenth-Century Russian Merchant Family in
Prosperity and Decline
David L. Ransel 256
11
Freemasonry and the Public in Eighteenth-Century Russia
Douglas Smith 281
12
Constructing the Meaning of Suicide: The Russian
Press in the Age of the Great Reforms
Irina Paperno 305
In Place of a Conclusion
Jane Burbank 333
Contributors 347
Index 349
Acknowledgments
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The editors thank several institutions and many scholars for the support,
research, and stimulating discussions that made this project possible. We
begin with our sponsors. The Joint Committee on the Soviet Union and Its Suc-
cessor States of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council
of Learned Societies provided the material, logistical, and personal support for
three workshops for the project as well as seed money for the volume itself. We
are particularly grateful to Susan Bronson, historian of imperial Russia and for-
mer Program Of¤cer at the SSRC, who has seen this project through from be-
ginning to completion; to Robert Huber, former Program Director of the Joint
Committee, who gave superb advice on both intellectual and ¤nancial matters;
and to Jill Finger, Program Assistant, who directed everyone to the right place
at the right time. The organizers of the SSRC-ACLS project were Jane Burbank,
Nancy Shields Kollmann, Richard Stites, and Reginald Zelnik, members of the
Joint Committee.
A planning meeting was held at the University of Iowa in November 1991,
supported in part by the Center for International and Comparative Studies there.
We thank the Center and in particular Steven Hoch, our host on the steppe in
a snowstorm, for the warm reception and gracious adjustments to weather wor-
thy of Russia.
The papers in the volume were produced for two workshops, entitled
“Visions, Institutions, and Experiences of Imperial Russia.” The ¤rst workshop
was held at the Kennan Institute of Advanced Russian Studies in Washington,
D.C., in September 1993. We thank the Institute and above all its director, Blair
Ruble, for hosting us and especially for our splendid meeting place in the
Smithsonian castle.
The second workshop was cosponsored by Portland State University at its
lovely urban campus. Our historian host, Louise Becker, made this an ideal lo-
cation.
The discussions at all three meetings focused on the issues of interpreta-
tion, analysis, and categorization that inform this volume. We are grateful to all
the participants in the meetings, including the authors of the chapters presented
here, for their many contributions to the project. A big thank you, then, to
Thomas Barrett, Sarah Berry, Jeffrey Brooks, Daniel Brower, Michael Con¤no,
ix