A History of Russia since 1700

This new history will examine the transformations, planned and otherwise, of social, economic, cultural, and political systems as an agrarian society made the transition to an industrial and urban society, and as it struggled with fundamental political, cultural, and other ideas often derived from a West with which it had an ambiguous relationship. In doing so it will ask questions about the extent to which Russia was becoming 'modern' (and just what that meant) along special, unique lines different from those of either the West or of the non-Western “third” world (or, conversely, whether that process was so unique). It will consider the international situation and how that shaped developments as Russia found itself repeatedly confronted with comparative backwardness or weakness in the military and economic spheres, and what kind of responses that called forth. Recurrent issues in the book include the legacy of serfdom, the tradition of social engineering from above, the nature of autocracy and reasons for it as a continuing theme of political life (and prospects for rule of law or democracy), the revolutionary tradition, military necessity as determinant of the policies of the leadership, the attractiveness of Western culture for the Russian cultural elite and whether their “shame” at Russia’s relative “barbarianness” and “backwardness” affected their behavior (cultural, intellectual, political), and the significance for Russia (tsarist and communist) of being an empire in the time of assertive nationalism, as well as the attendant issue of Russian national identity and state-building.