Download or read book Tsar and God and Other Essays in Russian Cultural Semiotics written by Victor Zhivov and published by Ars Rossica. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring a number of pioneering essays by the internationally known Russian cultural historians Boris Uspenskij and Victor Zhivov, this collection includes a number of essays appearing in English for the fi rst time. Focusing on several of the most interesting and problematic aspects of Russia's cultural development, these essaysexamine the survival and the reconceptualization of the past in later cultural systems and some of the key transformations of Russian cultural consciousness. The essays in this collection contain some important examples of Russian cultural semiotics and remain indispensable contributions to the history of Russian civilization.
Download or read book Nicholas II written by Marc Ferro and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1995 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A figure surrounded by myth and speculation, at the center of one of history's most cataclysmic events--the Russian Revolution--Nicholas II remains haunting and enigmatic. Now one of France's most eminent historians presents a biography that goes beyond the lies and half-lies surrounding Nicholas's reign to provide an evocative portrait of this most mysterious ruler. Illustrations.
Download or read book St Petersburg written by Dmitriĭ Olegovich Shvidkovskiĭ and published by Abbeville Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before becoming a city, St. Petersburg was a utopian vision in the mind of its founder, Peter the Great. Conceived by him as Russia's "window to the West," it evolved into a remarkably harmonious assemblage of baroque, rococo, neoclassical, and art nouveau buildings that reflect his taste and that of his successors, including Anna I, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, and Paul I. Crisscrossed by rivers and canals, this "Venice of the North," as Goethe dubbed it, is of unique beauty. Never before has that beauty been captured as eloquently as on the pages of this sumptuous volume. From the stately mansions lining the fabled Nevsky Prospekt to the magnificent palaces of the tsars on the outskirts of the city, including Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Oranienbaum, Gatchina, and Pavlovsk, photographer Alexander Orloff's portrait of St. Petersburg does full justice to the vision of its founder and namesake. The text, by art historian Dmitri Shvidkovsky, chronicles the history of the city's planning and construction from Peter the Great's time to the reign of the last tsar, Nicholas II. Anyone who has ever visited--or dreamed of visiting--the city of "white nights" will find St. Petersburg irresistible.
Download or read book By Honor Bound written by Nancy Shields Kollmann and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Russians from all ranks of society were bound together by a culture of honor. Here one of the foremost scholars of early modern Russia explores the intricate and highly stylized codes that made up this culture. Nancy Shields Kollmann describes how these codes were manipulated to construct identity and enforce social norms—and also to defend against insults, to pursue vendettas, and to unsettle communities. She offers evidence for a new view of the relationship of state and society in the Russian empire, and her richly comparative approach enhances knowledge of statebuilding in premodern Europe. By presenting Muscovite state and society in the context of medieval and early modern Europe, she exposes similarities that blur long-standing distinctions between Russian and European history.Through the prism of honor, Kollmann examines the interaction of the Russian state and its people in regulating social relations and defining an individual's rank. She finds vital information in a collection of transcripts of legal suits brought by elites and peasants alike to avenge insult to honor. The cases make clear the conservative role honor played in society as well as the ability of men and women to employ this body of ideas to address their relations with one another and with the state. Kollmann demonstrates that the grand princes—and later the tsars—tolerated a surprising degree of local autonomy throughout their rapidly expanding realm. Her work marks a stark contrast with traditional Russian historiography, which exaggerates the power of the state and downplays the volition of society.
Download or read book Goats and tsars written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-11 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report from the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) concludes that the practice of appointing ministers from outside Parliament via the House of Lords should be exceptional and subject to more checks and balances. Introducing a wider range of experience into ministerial teams can sometimes make government more effective, but government could also achieve this by making greater use of the range of talent on their own backbenches. The Committee argues for more scrutiny of outside appointments when they are made. The Prime Minister would be required to explain to the House of Commons why an appointment had been made, under what terms and what was expected of the minister during their time in government. The prospective appointee could be required to attend a pre-appointment select committee hearing. PASC identifies a strong argument of principle that ministers in an unelected House of Lords should be accountable to all Members of the House of Commons. People who have been appointed to the Lords to be ministers should not automatically receive a title and place in the legislature for life. It may be preferable to have a limited number of ministers who are members of neither House but accountable to both. The Committee also examined the role of so-called 'tsars'. There should be much more transparency about such appointments, with greater clarity about their roles and responsibilities and a public statement of what they have achieved in their posts.
Download or read book A Bride for the Tsar written by Russell E. Martin and published by Northern Illinois University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1505 to 1689, Russia's tsars chose their wives through an elaborate ritual: the bride-show. The realm's most beautiful young maidens—provided they hailed from the aristocracy—gathered in Moscow, where the tsar's trusted boyars reviewed their medical histories, evaluated their spiritual qualities, noted their physical appearances, and confirmed their virtue. Those who passed muster were presented to the tsar, who inspected the candidates one by one—usually without speaking to any of them—and chose one to be immediately escorted to the Kremlin to prepare for her wedding and new life as the tsar's consort. Alongside accounts of sordid boyar plots against brides, the multiple marriages of Ivan the Terrible, and the fascinating spectacle of the bride-show ritual, A Bride for the Tsar offers an analysis of the show's role in the complex politics of royal marriage in early modern Russia. Russell E. Martin argues that the nature of the rituals surrounding the selection of a bride for the tsar tells us much about the extent of his power, revealing it to be limited and collaborative, not autocratic. Extracting the bride-show from relative obscurity, Martin persuasively establishes it as an essential element of the tsarist political system.
Download or read book A Bride for the Tsar written by Russell E. Martin and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1505 to 1689, Russia's tsars chose their wives through an elaborate ritual: the bride-show. The realm's most beautiful young maidens—provided they hailed from the aristocracy—gathered in Moscow, where the tsar's trusted boyars reviewed their medical histories, evaluated their spiritual qualities, noted their physical appearances, and confirmed their virtue. Those who passed muster were presented to the tsar, who inspected the candidates one by one—usually without speaking to any of them—and chose one to be immediately escorted to the Kremlin to prepare for her wedding and new life as the tsar's consort. Alongside accounts of sordid boyar plots against brides, the multiple marriages of Ivan the Terrible, and the fascinating spectacle of the bride-show ritual, A Bride for the Tsar offers an analysis of the show's role in the complex politics of royal marriage in early modern Russia. Russell E. Martin argues that the nature of the rituals surrounding the selection of a bride for the tsar tells us much about the extent of his power, revealing it to be limited and collaborative, not autocratic. Extracting the bride-show from relative obscurity, Martin persuasively establishes it as an essential element of the tsarist political system.
Download or read book An Economic History of Russia written by James Mavor and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Lost Fortune of the Tsars written by William Clarke and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1995-12 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At its peak before the first world war, the fortune of the Romanovs of Russia has been calculated at over 45 billion dollars. It included fabulous state jewels, exquisite Faberge eggs, the palaces in and around St. Petersburg and the Crimea, the royal yachts and trains, and millions in Tsarist bank accounts in London, New York, and elsewhere. Since the secret murders of Nicholas and Alexandra and their family in 1918, and the subsequent, and controversial, discovery of their remains, the mystery persists: What happened to all that wealth? Questions surrounding the lost fortune are inevitably tied up with the issue of just who was killed that terrible summer's night in 1918 at Ekaterinburg. William Clarke goes to the heart of the Romanov story, to the Central State Archives in Russia, which for three-quarters of a century had been filed away in secrecy, and is only now open to investigation. The result of over twenty years of research, Clarke's quest reveals the truth behind claims to the Tsarist fortune made by the likes of Anna Anderson and Michel Goleniewski, and sheds new light on this most intriguing of historical mysteries.
Download or read book Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich written by Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents the first English edition of “On Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich” by Grigorii Kotoshikhin. This is the only native source describing the character of the seventeenth-century Russian state and society. It offers a unique and detailed picture of the nature of Russian “autocracy”, the life at the tsar’s court, social mores of the nobles and commoners of those times, military affairs, diplomatic relations, etc. The book is a veritable ethnographic encyclopedia of early Russian life. With broad commentaries and supporting materials provided by the translator, Benjamin Uroff, and the editor, Marshall Poe, it provides an invaluable source for understanding XVII-century Muscovite Russia.
Download or read book The Modernisation of Russia 1856 1985 written by John Laver and published by Heinemann. This book was released on 2002 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This resource is written for for students studying the economic and social development of Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as the nature of Russian government and its impact on the Russian people in this period.
Download or read book An Economic History of Russia The rise and fall of bondage right written by James Mavor and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Tsar The Empire and The Nation written by Darius Staliūnas and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-30 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays addresses the challenge of modern nationalism to the tsarist Russian Empire. First appearing on the empire’s western periphery this challenge, was most prevalent in twelve provinces extending from Ukrainian lands in the south to the Baltic provinces in the north, as well as to the Kingdom of Poland. At issue is whether the late Russian Empire entered World War I as a multiethnic state with many of its age-old mechanisms run by a multiethnic elite, or as a Russian state predominantly managed by ethnic Russians. The tsarist vision of prioritizing loyalty among all subjects over privileging ethnic Russians and discriminating against non-Russians faced a fundamental problem: as soon as the opportunity presented itself, non-Russians would increase their demands and become increasingly separatist. The authors found that although the imperial government did not really identify with popular Russian nationalism, it sometimes ended up implementing policies promoted by Russian nationalist proponents. Matters addressed include native language education, interconfessional rivalry, the “Jewish question,” the origins of mass tourism in the western provinces, as well as the emergence of Russian nationalist attitudes in the aftermath of the first Russian revolution.
Download or read book The Slave Soul of Russia written by Daniel Rancour-Laferriere and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why, asks Daniel Rancour-Laferriere in this controversial book, has Russia been a country of suffering? Russian history, religion, folklore, and literature are rife with suffering. The plight of Anna Karenina, the submissiveness of serfs in the 16th and 17th centuries, ancient religious tracts emphasizing humility as the mother of virtues, the trauma of the Bolshevik revolution, the current economic upheavals wracking the country-- these are only a few of the symptoms of what The Slave Soul of Russia identifies as a veritable cult of suffering that has been centuries in the making. Bringing to light dozens of examples of self-defeating activities and behaviors that have become an integral component of the Russian psyche, Rancour-Laferriere convincingly illustrates how masochism has become a fact of everyday life in Russia. Until now, much attention has been paid to the psychology of Russia's leaders and their impact on the country's condition. Here, for the first time, is a compelling portrait of the Russian people's psychology.
Download or read book We Shall Be Masters written by Chris Miller and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illuminating account of RussiaÕs attemptsÑand failuresÑto achieve great power status in Asia. Since Peter the Great, Russian leaders have been lured by opportunity to the East. Under the tsars, Russians colonized Alaska, California, and Hawaii. The Trans-Siberian Railway linked Moscow to Vladivostok. And Stalin looked to Asia as a sphere of influence, hospitable to the spread of Soviet Communism. In Asia and the Pacific lay territory, markets, security, and glory. But all these expansionist dreams amounted to little. In We Shall Be Masters, Chris Miller explores why, arguing that RussiaÕs ambitions have repeatedly outstripped its capacity. With the core of the nation concentrated thousands of miles away in the European borderlands, RussiaÕs would-be pioneers have always struggled to project power into Asia and to maintain public and elite interest in their far-flung pursuits. Even when the wider population professed faith in AsiaÕs promise, few Russians were willing to pay the steep price. Among leaders, too, dreams of empire have always been tempered by fears of cost. Most of RussiaÕs pivots to Asia have therefore been halfhearted and fleeting. Today the Kremlin talks up the importance of Òstrategic partnershipÓ with Xi JinpingÕs China, and Vladimir PutinÕs government is at pains to emphasize Russian activities across Eurasia. But while distance is covered with relative ease in the age of air travel and digital communication, the East remains far off in the ways that matter most. Miller finds that RussiaÕs Asian dreams are still restrained by the countryÕs firm rooting in Europe.
Download or read book Russia Under Two Tsars 1682 1689 written by C. Bickford O'Brien and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1951.
Download or read book The Last of the Tsars written by Robert Service and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of the last eighteen months of Tsar Nicholas II's life and reign from one of the finest Russian historians writing today. In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now Robert Service, the eminent historian of Russia, examines Nicholas's life and thought from the months before his momentous abdication to his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times, but Service's deep understanding of the period and his forensic examination of previously untapped sources, including the Tsar's diaries and recorded conversations, as well as the testimonies of the official inquiry, shed remarkable new light on his troubled reign, also revealing the kind of Russia that Nicholas wanted to emerge from the Great War. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic and political ferment in Russia that followed the February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, and the beginnings of Lenin's Soviet socialist republic.