Moderniser of Russia

Moderniser of Russia PDF Author: K. Boterbloem
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137323671
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book investigates Russia's transformation into a European Power by way of the activities of the tsarist translator and official Andrei Vinius, who became an important advisor to Peter the Great. Vinius emerges as an influential conduit of Western culture and technology, who played a key role in transforming Muscovy into Russia.

Moderniser of Russia

Moderniser of Russia PDF Author: K. Boterbloem
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137323671
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book investigates Russia's transformation into a European Power by way of the activities of the tsarist translator and official Andrei Vinius, who became an important advisor to Peter the Great. Vinius emerges as an influential conduit of Western culture and technology, who played a key role in transforming Muscovy into Russia.

The Modernisation of Russia, 1676-1825

The Modernisation of Russia, 1676-1825 PDF Author: Simon Dixon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521379618
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This is the first book to place Russia's 'long' eighteenth century squarely in its European context. The conceptual framework is set out in an opening critique of modernisation which, while rejecting its linear implications, maintains its focus on the relationship between government, economy and society. Following a chronological introduction, a series of thematic chapters (covering topics such as finance and taxation, society, government and politics, culture, ideology, and economy) emphasise the ways in which Russia's international ambitions as an emerging great power provoked administrative and fiscal reforms with wide-ranging (and often unanticipated) social consequences. This thematic analysis allows Simon Dixon to demonstrate that the more the tsars tried to modernise their state, the more backward their empire became. A chronology and critical bibliography are also provided to allow students to discover more about this colourful period of Russian history.

Worshipping the Great Moderniser

Worshipping the Great Moderniser PDF Author: Irene Stengs
Publisher: NUS Press
ISBN: 9789971694296
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
An examination of social imaginary surrounding Thai kingship and Thainess that yield an intriguing amalgam of ideas concerning popular religion, Buddhist kingship, nationalism, and material culture. It explores the contemporary appeal of King Chulalongkorn and considers what this ruler's unprecedented popularity says about Thai society.

Russia as Empire

Russia as Empire PDF Author: Kees Boterbloem
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789142911
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Covering more than one thousand years of tumultuous history, Russia as Empire shows how the medieval empire of Kyivan Rus’ metamorphosed into today’s Russian Federation. Kees Boterbloem vividly and lucidly describes Russia’s various incarnations and considers how the concept of empire evolved from tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union, and how and why it survives today. He discusses the ideological architects of these empires and the ideas of their political leaders—the tsars, Lenin, Stalin, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir Putin. Russia as Empire considers the role of the various empires’ inhabitants, from nobility to clergy and communist party members, revealing how and why they adhered to, or believed in, their country’s imperial mission. What emerges is a highly original overview that illuminates the continuities and discontinuities in Russian history.

Russia's Theatrical Past

Russia's Theatrical Past PDF Author: Claudia R. Jensen
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253056357
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
In the 17th century, only Moscow's elite had access to the magical, vibrant world of the theater. In Russia's Theatrical Past, Claudia Jensen, Ingrid Maier, Stepan Shamin, and Daniel C. Waugh mine Russian and Western archival sources to document the history of these productions as they developed at the court of the Russian tsar. Using such sources as European newspapers, diplomats' reports, foreign travel accounts, witness accounts, and payment records, they also uncover unique aspects of local culture and politics of the time. Focusing on Northern European theatrical traditions, the authors explore the concept of intertheater, which describes transmissions between performing traditions, and reveal how the Muscovite court's interest in theater and other musical entertainment was strongly influenced by diplomatic contacts. Russia's Theatrical Past, made possible by an international research collaborative, offers fresh insight into how and why Russians went to such great efforts to rapidly develop court theater in the 17th century.

A History of Russia and Its Empire

A History of Russia and Its Empire PDF Author: Kees Boterbloem
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538104415
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
This clear and focused text provides an introduction to imperial Russian and Soviet history from the crowning of Mikhail Romanov in 1613 to Vladimir Putin’s new term. Through a consistent chronological narrative, Kees Boterbloem considers the political, military, economic, social, religious, and cultural developments and crucial turning points that led Russia from an exotic backwater to superpower stature in the twentieth century. The author assesses the tremendous price paid by those who made Russia and the Soviet Union into such a hegemonic power, both locally and globally. He considers the complex and varied interactions between Russians and non-Russians and investigates the reasons for the remarkable longevity of this last of the colonial powers, whose dependencies were not granted independence until 1991. He explores the ongoing legacies of this fraught decolonization process on the Russian Federation itself and on the other states that succeeded the Soviet Union. The only text designed and written specifically for a one-semester course on this four-hundred-year period, it will appeal to all readers interested in learning more about the history of the people who have inhabited one-sixth of the earth’s landmass for centuries.

Inside the Mind of Vladimir Putin

Inside the Mind of Vladimir Putin PDF Author: Michel Eltchaninoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849049335
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
The Russian president's landmark speeches, interviews and policies borrow heavily from great Russian thinkers past and present, from Peter the Great to Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn. They offer powerful visions of strong leaders and the Russian nation: they value conservatism and the Slavic spirit. They root morality in Orthodoxy, and Russian identity in the historic struggle with the West. Today, Putin manages and manipulates those same ideas in his 'defense' of 130 million ethnic Russians against the world. With the annexation of Crimea, the war in Syria and shock election results across the West, the challenge of decrypting his worldview has become more pressing than ever. From a Eurasian Union to a new Russian Empire, this is a revealing tour of Kremlin doctrine and strategy, viewed through its philosophical roots.

The Vory

The Vory PDF Author: Mark Galeotti
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300186827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The first English-language book to document the men who emerged from the gulags to become Russia's much-feared crime class: the vory v zakone Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western readers can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment. The vory--as the Russian mafia is also known--was born early in the twentieth century, largely in the Gulags and criminal camps, where they developed their unique culture. Identified by their signature tattoos, members abided by the thieves' code, a strict system that forbade all paid employment and cooperation with law enforcement and the state. Based on two decades of on-the-ground research, Galeotti's captivating study details the vory's journey to power from their early days to their adaptation to modern-day Russia's free-wheeling oligarchy and global opportunities beyond.

The Russian Empire 1450-1801

The Russian Empire 1450-1801 PDF Author: Nancy Shields Kollmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191082708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 501

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Book Description
Modern Russian identity and historical experience has been largely shaped by Russia's imperial past: an empire that was founded in the early modern era and endures in large part today. The Russian Empire 1450-1801 surveys how the areas that made up the empire were conquered and how they were governed. It considers the Russian empire a 'Eurasian empire', characterized by a 'politics of difference': the rulers and their elites at the center defined the state's needs minimally - with control over defense, criminal law, taxation, and mobilization of resources - and otherwise tolerated local religions, languages, cultures, elites, and institutions. The center related to communities and religions vertically, according each a modicum of rights and autonomies, but didn't allow horizontal connections across nobilities, townsmen, or other groups potentially with common interests to coalesce. Thus, the Russian empire was multi-ethnic and multi-religious; Nancy Kollmann gives detailed attention to the major ethnic and religious groups, and surveys the government's strategies of governance - centralized bureaucracy, military reform, and a changed judicial system. The volume pays particular attention to the dissemination of a supranational ideology of political legitimacy in a variety of media - written sources and primarily public ritual, painting, and particularly architecture. Beginning with foundational features, such as geography, climate, demography, and geopolitical situation, The Russian Empire 1450-1801 explores the empire's primarily agrarian economy, serfdom, towns and trade, as well as the many religious groups - primarily Orthodoxy, Islam, and Buddhism. It tracks the emergence of an 'Imperial nobility' and a national self-consciousness that was, by the end of the eighteenth century, distinctly imperial, embracing the diversity of the empire's many peoples and cultures.

The Merchants of Siberia

The Merchants of Siberia PDF Author: Erika L. Monahan
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150170396X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
In The Merchants of Siberia, Erika Monahan reconsiders commerce in early modern Russia by reconstructing the trading world of Siberia and the careers of merchants who traded there. She follows the histories of three merchant families from various social ranks who conducted trade in Siberia for well over a century. These include the Filat'evs, who were among Russia’s most illustrious merchant elite; the Shababins, Muslim immigrants who mastered local and long-distance trade while balancing private endeavors with service to the Russian state; and the Noritsyns, traders of more modest status who worked sometimes for themselves, sometimes for bigger merchants, and participated in the emerging Russia-China trade. Monahan demonstrates that trade was a key component of how the Muscovite state sought to assert its authority in the Siberian periphery. The state’s recognition of the benefits of commerce meant that Russian state- and empire-building in Siberia were characterized by accommodation; in this diverse borderland, instrumentality trumped ideology and the Orthodox state welcomed Central Asian merchants of Islamic faith. This reconsideration of Siberian trade invites us to rethink Russia’s place in the early modern world. The burgeoning market at Lake Yamysh, an inner-Eurasian trading post along the Irtysh River, illuminates a vibrant seventeenth-century Eurasian caravan trade even as Europe-Asia maritime trade increased. By contextualizing merchants and places of Siberian trade in the increasingly connected economies of the early modern period, Monahan argues that, commercially speaking, Russia was not the "outlier" that most twentieth-century characterizations portrayed.