Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I
304
Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I
304Hardcover(1)
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Overview
Martin views the development of Russian conservatism in several contexts, the most important of which is the new nationalism that linked the crisis brought on by the Napoleonic wars to the eras of Catherine the Great and Nicholas I. Exploring the growth of nationalistic thinking, he shows its relation to sentimentalism, to a broad religious awakening, and to the growing pride in Russian distinctiveness. Linking Russia's intellectual and cultural life with national politics, Martin identifies conservative groups and investigates their role in influencing foreign and domestic policy. He shows how public opinion responded to the conservatives' initiatives and explores the relationship between conservative-nationalist ideas and Russian society.
By placing Russian conservatism firmly in the context of contemporary Western thought, Martin presents the striking conclusion that Russian conservatives were part of the political and cultural upheaval that took place all across Europe between the revolutions of 1789 and 1848. Russian conservatism was thus uniquely double-edged: far from mainly defending the status quo, Russia's conservatives were also part of the movement for change.
Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries is the first in-depth probe of the origins of Russian conservatism. It will appeal not only to Russian historians but to all readers concerned with political culture and the history of conservative thought.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780875802268 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Cornell University Press |
| Publication date: | 10/01/1997 |
| Series: | NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies |
| Edition description: | 1 |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
What People are Saying About This
Based on a prodigious amount of research in Russian archives and in published primary and secondary materials in Russian, English, German, and French, Alexander Martin's book gives us an exhaustive analysis of the thought of the major conservatives of Alexander I's reign, as reflected in their tracts, letters, and memoirs.
At every point Martin's book is shrewdly argued and well written
Alexander M. Martin offers a well-done explanation of how and why Russia failed to develop a coherent and politically effective conservatism and an insightful discussion of the long-term consequences of that failure. His thorough command of the sources, published and unpublished, enriches a study that is a major contribution to understanding modern Russia.
This provocative work examines varieties of conservatism in Alexander I's Russia (1801-25). Mining an extensive range of archival, manuscript, and published sources, Martin reconstructs the lives, ideas, and activities of prominent conservatives in St. Petersburg and Moscow who reacted to the French Revolution and Enlightenment.
This book is a valuable contribution to a relatively neglected area of Russian thought.
This work is an excellent study of conservative thought and politics in early nineteenth-century Russia. Martin is able to weave the ideas of these conservative thinkers into the politics of the era very nicely. In addition, Martin's command of the historiography on this subject is outstanding. The secondary sources in his bibliography would provide anyone interested with an excellent basis for further study of Russian conservatism.
This translated memoir is a significant contribution to the social history of early nineteenth-century Russia. Written by Dmitrii Ivanovich Rostislavov (1809-1877), a priest's son who later became a mathematician and social critic, the memoir provides a rich and sometimes shocking window into village and town life in Riazan' province in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Expertly translated by Alexander M. Martin, it is a readable and revealing introduction to the life of the peasants, the village clergy, and the experience of the seminary.
This stimulating work will appeal to a wide audience with interests in Russian history, culture and letters during the reign of Alexander I. Because of its extensive coverage of a great number of subjects, it may be of as much interest to the generalist as to the specialist.
This modest, understated, carefully nuanced study of conservative thought in Russia during the reign of Emperor Aleksandr I does much to clarify the connections between that ruler's often seemingly inconsistent polity and the events of his time, between that polity and prevailing currents of thought (religious, political, literary) both in Russia and in the rest of Europe, between Russian thinkers and the climate of European thought of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, between the intellectual climate that preceded and the one that succeeded it, and the orientation of imperial polity to- ward that climate Martin's two chapters on the Holy Alliance, his account of three brilliant and influential women, and above all his portrait of Aleksandr Sturdza are outstanding features of this accomplished study.