Prince Michael Vorontsov

Prince Michael Vorontsov PDF Author: Anthony Laurens Hamilton Rhinelander
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773507470
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov (1785 1856) is generally acclaimed as one of tsarism's most successful and innovative administrators. After growing up in England, where his father was Russian ambassador, he returned to Russia and became an officer in the army during the Napoleonic wars. In 1823 Alexander I appointed Vorontsov to the post of governor general of New Russia the then "half-wild" southern Ukraine. His task was to encourage development and link the area more effectively with the economy and administration of the empire. Vorontsov was so successful that in 1845 Nicholas I promoted him to viceroy and extended his authority to include Caucasia, which he administered with the extraordinary mandate of "unlimited powers."

Prince Michael Vorontsov

Prince Michael Vorontsov PDF Author: Anthony Laurens Hamilton Rhinelander
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773507470
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov (1785 1856) is generally acclaimed as one of tsarism's most successful and innovative administrators. After growing up in England, where his father was Russian ambassador, he returned to Russia and became an officer in the army during the Napoleonic wars. In 1823 Alexander I appointed Vorontsov to the post of governor general of New Russia the then "half-wild" southern Ukraine. His task was to encourage development and link the area more effectively with the economy and administration of the empire. Vorontsov was so successful that in 1845 Nicholas I promoted him to viceroy and extended his authority to include Caucasia, which he administered with the extraordinary mandate of "unlimited powers."

The Prince of Princes

The Prince of Princes PDF Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312278151
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 692

Get Book Here

Book Description
A history of one of Russia's greatest leaders explores the life and career of Potemkin, lover of Catherine the Great and architect of Russian imperial power.

Imperial Odessa: Peoples, Spaces, Identities

Imperial Odessa: Peoples, Spaces, Identities PDF Author: Evrydiki Sifneos
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004351620
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
Imperial Odessa: Peoples, Spaces, Identities is a book about a cosmopolitan city written by a cosmopolitan scholar with a literary flair. Evrydiki Sifneos conceives Odessa as more of a fin-de siècle east Mediterranean port-metropolis than as a provincial port-city of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century due to two of its principal characteristics: its function as a hub of international trade and travel, and the multi-ethnic character of its inhabitants. The book unfolds around two interpenetrating axes. The first one introduces a new "peripatetic" approach that discovers the space of the city; and the other, the one that has given it its dynamic, is the socio-economic transformations that germinated within the political changes.

Catherine the Great & Potemkin

Catherine the Great & Potemkin PDF Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593467914
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 689

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the author of The Romanovs: a vivid account of history's most successful political partnership—as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin—wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented—was the love of her life and her co-ruler. Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, territories that define the Russian sphere of influence to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving each of them free to take younger lovers. But these “twin souls” never stopped loving each other. Drawing on the pair’s intimate letters and on vast research, Simon Sebag Montefiore's widely acclaimed biography restores these imperial partners to their rightful place as titans of their age.

The Ghost of Freedom

The Ghost of Freedom PDF Author: Charles King
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199884323
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Caucasus mountains rise at the intersection of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. A land of astonishing natural beauty and a dizzying array of ancient cultures, the Caucasus for most of the twentieth century lay inside the Soviet Union, before movements of national liberation created newly independent countries and sparked the devastating war in Chechnya. Combining riveting storytelling with insightful analysis, The Ghost of Freedom is the first general history of the modern Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to the rise of new countries after the Soviet Union's collapse. In evocative and accessible prose, Charles King reveals how tsars, highlanders, revolutionaries, and adventurers have contributed to the fascinating history of this borderland, providing an indispensable guide to the complicated histories, politics, and cultures of this intriguing frontier. Based on new research in multiple languages, the book shows how the struggle for freedom in the mountains, hills, and plains of the Caucasus has been a perennial theme over the last two hundred years--a struggle which has led to liberation as well as to new forms of captivity. The book sheds valuable light on the origins of modern disputes, including the ongoing war in Chechnya, conflicts in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and debates over oil from the Caspian Sea and its impact on world markets. Ranging from the salons of Russian writers to the circus sideshows of America, from the offices of European diplomats to the villages of Muslim mountaineers, The Ghost of Freedom paints a rich portrait of one of the world's most turbulent and least understood regions.

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams PDF Author: Charles King
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393080528
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
Winner of a National Jewish Book Award "Fascinating.…A humane and tragic survey of a great and tragic subject." —Jan Morris, Literary Review From Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist renegade Vladimir Jabotinsky and filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, an astonishing cast of geniuses helped shape Odessa, a legendary haven of cosmopolitan freedom on the Black Sea. Drawing on a wealth of original sources and offering the first detailed account of the destruction of the city's Jewish community during the Second World War, Charles King's Odessa is both history and elegy—a vivid chronicle of a multicultural city and its remarkable resilience over the past two centuries.

Forging a Unitary State

Forging a Unitary State PDF Author: John P. LeDonne
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487533322
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 682

Get Book Here

Book Description
Covering two centuries of Russian history, Forging a Unitary State is a comprehensive account of the creation of what is commonly known as the "Russian Empire," from Poland to Siberia. In this book, John P. LeDonne demonstrates that the so-called empire was, for the most part, a unitary state, defined by an obsessive emphasis on centralization and uniformity. The standardization of local administration, the judicial system, tax regime, and commercial policy were carried out slowly but systematically over eight generations, in the hope of integrating people on the periphery into the Russian political and social hierarchy. The ultimate goal of Russian policy was to create a "Fortress Empire" consisting of a huge Russian unitary state flanked by a few peripheral territories, such as Finland, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia. Additional peripheral states, such as Sweden, Turkey, and Persia, would guarantee the security of this "Fortress Empire," and the management of Eurasian territory. LeDonne’s provocative argument is supported by a careful comparative study of Russian expansion along its western, southern, and eastern borders, drawing on vital but under-studied administrative evidence. Forging a Unitary State is an essential resource for those interested in the long history of Russian expansionism.

The Russian Nobility in the Age of Alexander I

The Russian Nobility in the Age of Alexander I PDF Author: Patrick O’Meara
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1788315677
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Get Book Here

Book Description
The reign of Alexander I was a pivotal moment in the construction of Russia's national mythology. This work examines this crucial period focusing on the place of the Russian nobility in relation to their ruler, and the accompanying debate between reform and the status quo, between a Russia old and new, and between different visions of what Russia could become. Drawing on extensive archival research and placing a long-neglected emphasis on this aspect of Alexander I's reign, this book is an important work for students and scholars of imperial Russia, as well as the wider Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period in Europe.

Cultivating Nationhood in Imperial Russia

Cultivating Nationhood in Imperial Russia PDF Author: Lisa Khachaturian
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351524674
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book Here

Book Description
Nineteenth-century Armenia was a zone of competition between the Persian, Ottoman, and the Russian Empires. Yet over the course of the century a new generation of Armenian journalists, scholars, and writers worked to transform their geographically, socially, and linguistically fragmented communities threatened by regional isolation and dissent, into a patriotic and nationally conscious population. Lisa Khachaturian seeks to explain how this profoundly divided society managed to achieve a common cultural bond.The national project that captivated nineteenth-century Eastern Armenian intellectuals was a daunting task, especially since their efforts were directed in the Caucasus--a territory known for its volatile history, its ethnic heterogeneity, and its linguistic complexity. Although this cultural and social maelstrom was both aggravated and tempered by the new Russian arena of economic growth, urban development, and heightened technology and communication, diversity was hardly a recent phenomenon in the region; it had been an endemic part of Caucasian history for centuries. Armenians were no exception to this. While the Georgians, bound to their landed nobility, generally lived within kingdoms, the Armenians experienced centuries of forced resettlement, migration, and centuries of habitation among other peoples. Some Armenians had settled in faraway countries, but many remained in scattered colonies within the boundaries of historic Armenia.This is a study of the formation of modern Armenian national consciousness under Imperial Russian rule. The Tsarist acquisition of Armenian-populated territory and consequent efforts to integrate this territory into the empire imposed sufficient unity to provide a basis for a nascent national movement. The particular influences of Russian imperial rule met the Eastern Armenian communities to create a new environment for a modern national revival. This book reviews how nineteenth-century Armenian intellectuals discussed and conceived of the nation through the formation of the Armenian press. This is a rare blend of national culture and communication networking.

Policemen of the Tsar

Policemen of the Tsar PDF Author: Robert J. Abbott
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 963386576X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Get Book Here

Book Description
Founded by Peter the Great in 1718, Russia’s police were key instruments of tsarist power. In the reign of Alexander II (1855-1881), local police forces took on new importance. The liberation of 23 million serfs from landlord control, growing fear of crime, and the terrorist violence of the closing years challenged law enforcement with new tasks that made worse what was already a staggering burden. (“I am obliged to inform Your Imperial Highness that the police often fail to carry out their assignments and, when they do execute them, they do so poorly because of their moral corruption...”) This book describes the regime’s decades-long struggle to reform and strengthen the police. The author reviews the local police’s role and performance in the mid-nineteenth century and the implications of the largely unsuccessful effort to transform them. From a longer-term perspective, the study considers how the police’s systemic weaknesses undermined tsarist rule, impeded a range of liberalizing reforms, perpetuated reliance on the military to maintain law and order, and gave rise to vigilante justice. While its primary focus is on European Russia, the analysis also covers much of the imperial periphery, discussing the police systems in the Baltic Provinces, Congress Poland, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia.