This volume brings together forty papers from the Study Group's very successful international conference held in Wittenberg in 2004. The contributors include scholars from Russia, Britain, Germany, Italy and the US: papers are written in English and in Russian. Topics range widely over the life of the Empire and its emerging modern society, institutions and discourses. The volume brings together new research on literature and its social context, on cultural models and reception, on social groups and individuals, on history, law and economy: it offers an exciting interdisciplinary insight into Imperial Russia in the 'long' eighteenth century.

This is a collection of thirteen major essays on eighteenth-century Russia by one of the most distinguished Western historians. They illustrate and explore three major themes: the development of the Russian state and Russian society, in the years when Russia was changing from a minor power on the European periphery to a major actor on the continental stage; the influence of western ideas and western thought on Russian politics and culture; and the impact of the Enlightenment on Russia. This is a substantial contribution not just to the history of Russia, but to early modern Europe generally.

Russia's eighteenth-century drive toward modernity and empire under the two "greats" - Peter I and Catherine II - is fully captured in this new work by one of Russia's outstanding young historians. Kamenskii develops three themes: Russia's encounter with European civilization; the transformation of "Holy Russia" into a multinational empire; and the effects of efforts from above to modernize Russia selectively along Western lines. Writing in a clear, crisp style, the author enlivens his narrative with observations from contemporary literary figures and political commentators that illuminate the significance of the events he describes. In preparing this first history of eighteenth-century Russia to be written in many years, Kamenskii has drawn on the work of several generations of historians from many nations. His goal - gracefully achieved - has been to produce a readable, one-volume synthesis revealing the events and processes that were of greatest importance in transforming Russia into one of the world's most lasting empires.

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This study is an expanded and revised version of a thesis accepted for the Ph. D. Degree by the University of London in 1965. My sincere thanks go to Dr. Bertha Malnick, formerly of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, for her valuable advice, criticism, and encourage ment. Some of the material used in Chapters Three and Four has been published earlier in The Slavonic & East European Review, and I am grateful to the Editors of that journal for their kind permission to draw on it for the present purpose. Most of my research was carried out in the libraries of the British Museum and of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and I wish to thank the many members of the staff of both these institutions who facilitated my labours. My thanks also go to the ladies of York University Secretarial Services involved in preparing the manuscript for the press. Finally, I must acknowledge the immense debt of gratitude lowe to my wife, without whose co-operation the whole project could never have materialised. The responsibility for all opinions expressed in this book and for all its shortcomings is entirely my own. Toronto, Canada December 1970 INTRODUCTION The eighteenth century for Russia marks the transition from the medieval (i. e. religious) to the modern European (i. e.

Zhivov's magisterial work tells the story of the creation of a new vernacularliterary language in modern Russia, an achievement arguably on a par with thenation's extraordinary military successes, territorial expansion, developmentof the arts, and formation of a modern empire.