The essays in this 1982 volume result from a conference held at Stanford University in 1978, assembled to assess the overall character and significance of the prerevolutionary Russian experiment with the principle and practice of local self-government, the zemstvo, over half of its existence, 1864–1918. The unifying theme of the collection is the rejection of the liberal myth of the zemstvo as an instrument of social integration. The chapters focus on the substantive elements of conflict and tension that existed within the zemstvos, especially between the institutions' two principal groups: the landed gentry, who dominated the zemstvo, and the peasants, who constituted the majority of the population and were intended to the beneficiaries of most of the economic and cultural programs, yet had little part in their formation. Based on the contributors' extensive knowledge of their respective subjects, many of them provide information from previously unpublished materials in Soviet and Ame
This books is concerned with the emancipation of the Russian serfs in 1861, the most important event in Russian history between the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725) and the Revolution of 1905. It is a social history of the emancipation. The attitudes of the landowning gentry toward emancipation: their part in its preparation and their conflict with the government over the terms of emancipation and related reforms, are the major subjects treated. The book shows in what circumstances the emancipation took place, and how the gentry were involved in the process. The undertaking of emancipation produced a political and social crisis which involved a serious threat to the autocratic regime, laid the foundations for the rise of constitutional liberalism in Russia, but destroyed the foundations of the gentry class.
This masterful comparative history traces the West’s revolutionary tradition and its culmination in the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Unique in breadth and scope, History̵
This masterful comparative history traces the West’s revolutionary tradition and its culmination in the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Unique in breadth and scope, History’s Locomotiv
