Description
Book SynopsisA pioneer in the field of Russian and Soviet studies in the West, Alfred J. Rieber’s five decade career has focused on increasing our understanding of the Russian Empire from Peter the Great to the coming of the First World War.
The Imperial Russian Project is a collection of Rieber’s lifetime of work, focusing on three interconnected themes of this time period: the role of reform in the process of state building, the interaction of state and social movements, and alternative visions of economic development. This volume contains Rieber’s previously published, classic essays, edited and updated, as well as newly written works that together provide a well-integrated framework for reflection on this topic. Rieber argues that Russia’s style of autocratic governance not only reflected the personalities of the rulers but also the challenges of overcoming economic backwardness in a society lacking common citizenship and a cohesive ruling class.
Trade Review
"Alfred Rieber belong to the first generation of postwar Russian experts in the United States, yet sixty years later he is still going strong, producing research of great originality and powerful insight. This collection of articles – too rich for a review to do justice – prsents a searching and distinctive interpretation of the evolution of Imperial Russia from the eighteenth to the twentieth century." -- Geoffrey Hosking, University College London * Journal of Modern History, September 2019 *
"The articles of The Imperial Russian Project contribute to a remarkable global interpretation of Russian history that brings together economic change, the evolution of a cultivated and competent officialdom, and the relations between state and society." -- Richard Wortman * Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History *
"The articles of The Imperial Russian Project contribute to a remarkable global interpretation of Russian history that brings together economic change, the evolution of a cultivated and competent officialdom, and the relations between state and society. Rieber places these developments in the context of the abiding limits to progress: uncompromising autocratic authority, the backwardness of the economy, poorly articulated social boundaries and identities, as well as the vastness of the empire." -- Richard Wortman * Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History *
Table of Contents
PART ONE: THE FOUNDATIONS 1. The Petrine Vision and Its Fate PART TWO: CULTURAL TRANSFER, INTEREST GROUPS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH 2. The Aufkl rung in Russia 3. The Biogenetic Model 4. The Moscow Entrepreneurial Group 5. The Engineers 6. The Economists 7. Origin of the Reutern System 8. The Reutern System in Operation 9. Patronage and Professionalism PART THREE: SOCIAL STRUCTURES IN A DIVIDED POLITY 10. The Social Identification of the Nobility 11. The Sedimentary Society 12. Social and Political Fragmentation
