Pretenders and Popular Monarchism in Early Modern Russia: The False Tsars of the Time and Troubles

by Maureen Perrie

Overview

This is the first scholarly account by a Western historian of the Time of Troubles, the period of civil war and foreign invasion in early-seventeenth-century Russia. The author focuses on the various pretenders or royal imposters who appeared at this time; she traces their careers and offers explanations for their success. Her analysis of the phenomenon of pretense illuminates popular perceptions of the monarchy in early modern Russia, and demonstrates how social protest could take the form of support for imposters claiming to be the "true tsar".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521472746
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/21/1995
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Prologue: Tsarevich Dimitry and Boris Godunov; Part I. The First False Dimitry; 1. The fugitive monk; 2. The campaign for the crown; 3. The pretender on the throne; Part II. Rebels in the Name of Tsar Dimitry: 4. Tsar Dimitry Lives!; 5. The uprising continues; Part III. The Final Stages of the Troubles: 6. The Second False Dimitry: from Starodub to Tushino; 7. The Second False Dimitry: Tushino and Kaluga; 8. Tsarevich Ivan Dimitrievich; Epilogue: After the Troubles: Pretence in the Later Seventeenth Century; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"All in all, Perrie has produced ont only a fresh scholarly approach to the pretense phenomenon but a well-written book that might serve as a good college text for courses on early modern Russia." Historian

"Maureen Perrie's gracefully written and intellectually rigorous study of samozvanchestvo, or royal imposture, will be of value to scholars working in a number of different disciplines. Historians, literary critics, and cultural anthropologists alike will find not only a wealth of information but also sound interpretations of this odd phenomenon of early modern Russian culture. Pretenders and Popular Monarchism is noteworthy both for its painstaking analysis of a wide variety of primary and secondary sources and for its semiotic approach to cultural history which allows Perrie to clearly delineate the specifically Russian features of samozvanchestvo....Pretenders and Popular Mechanism is an indispensable source for the study of royal pretense in Russia. Maureen Perrie deftly summarizes quantities of Russian and other foreign language materials and makes them available to the English reader in an elegant and cogent monograph." Nationalities Papers

"...Perrie has produced not only a fresh ascholarly approach to the pretense phenomenon but a well-written book that might serve as a good college text for courses on early mosern Russia." Andrei A. Znamenski, The Historian

"Maureen Perrie's new monograph is an excellent and often entertaining introduction to this extraordinarily complex sequence of events and to the phenomenon of pretense in early-seventeenth-century Russia more generally....Perrie's detailed and engaging reconstruction of this little-understood yet critical episode in Russian political history is likely to stand as the definitive account for decades to come." Daniel E. Schafer, Sixteenth Century Journal

"Perrie's book is a thoughtful and stimulating contribution to the ongoing reevaluation of the Time of Troubles." Robert O. Crummey, American Historical Review

"Maureen Perrie has produced a careful survey of the information we have about the long series of pretenders who haunted Russian politics at the beginning of the seventeenth century....The most admirable feature of this book is its author's command of both primary sources and of the voluminious and often contradictory secondary literature....meticulously researched and elegantly written book...." Slavic Review

"Perrie has written a detailed history of misadventures and a useful that exaggerate the virtues of the simple peasants." Charles A. Ruud, Canadian Jrnl of History

From the Publisher