Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge and Practices, 1800-1950

by D. Hoffmann (Editor), Y. Kotsonis (Editor)

Overview

This book represents the first concerted effort to place 19th and 20th century Russia in European context, as well as to understand Soviet Russia against the historical background of Imperial Russia. In a wide-ranging selection of topics--from corporal punishment to diary-writing, from the rise of nationalism to biological engineering--the authors argue that Russia shared in a larger European modernity marked by increased overlap and sometimes merger of realms that had previously been treated as separate entities: the social and the political, state and society, government and economy, and private and public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312225995
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	07/05/2000
Edition description:	2000
Pages:	279
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

GOLFO ALEXOPOULOS Assistant Professor of History, University of South Florida FRANCES BERNSTEIN Fellow, Kennan Institute, Washington, DC FREDERICK CORNEY Assistant Professor of History, University of Florida JOCHEN HELLBECK Member of the Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan PETER HOLQUIST Assistant Professor of History, Cornell University NATHANIEL KNIGHT Assistant Professor of History, Seton Hall University TERRY MARTIN Assistant Professor of History, Harvard University KENNETH M. PINNOW formerly Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Brooklyn Polytechnic University ABBY M. SCHRADER Assistant Professor of History, Franklin and Marshall College CHARLES STEINWEDEL Ph.D. Student, Columbia University

Table of Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors INTRODUCTION A Modern Paradox: Subject and Citizen in Nineteenth and Twentieth-century Russia; Y.Kotsonis PART I: TOWARD A MODERN POLITICS: CONSCIOUSNESS AND UNIVERSALISM IN PRE-REFORM RUSSIA Branding the Exile as 'Other': Corporal Punishment and the Construction of Boundaries in Mid-nineteenth-century Russia; A.M.Schrader Ethnicity, Nationality and the Masses: Narodnost' and Modernity in Imperial Russia; N.Knight PART II: REFORM AND REVOLUTION AS MODERN MOMENTS To Make a Difference: The Category of Ethnicity in Late Imperial Russian Politics, 1861-1917; C.Steinwedel What's So Revolutionary about the Russian Revolution? State Practices and the New-Style Politics, 1914-1921; P.Holquist PART III: THE PARADOX OF HUMAN REDEEMABILITY IN SOVIET RUSSIA Cutting and Counting: Forensic Medicine as a Science of Society in Bolshevik Russia, 1920-1929; K.M.Pinnow Science, Glands, and the Medical Construction of Gender Difference in Revolutionary Russia; F.L.Bernstein Modernization or Neo-Traditionalism? Ascribed Nationality and Soviet Primordialism; T.Martin PART IV: NARRATIVE AND IDENTITY IN THE SOVIET CONTEXT Narratives of October and the Issue of Legitimacy; F.C.Corney Victims Talk: Defense Testimony and Denunciation under Stalin; G.Alexopoulos Self-Realization in the Stalinist System: Two Soviet Diaries of the 1930s; J.Hellbeck CONCLUSION European Modernity and Soviet Socialism; D.L.Hoffmann Index

Editorial Reviews

'...the authors have opened up interesting areas and raised important questions.' - American Historical Review

'...the questions and approaches are representative of some of the best new work in the field.' - Slavic Review

From the Publisher

Places 19th- and 20th-century Russia in European context and offers insight on Soviet Russia against the background of Imperial Russia. Writing on topics ranging from corporal punishment to biological engineering, contributors argue that Russia shared in a larger European modernity marked by merger of social and political realms. Chapters are in sections on consciousness and universalism in pre- reform Russia, reform and revolution as modern moments, the paradox of human redeemability in Soviet Russia, and narrative and identity in the Soviet context. Hoffmann teaches history at Ohio State University. Kotsonis teaches history at New York University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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