Russia A History

by Gregory L. Freeze

  ———The Well-Ordered Police State (New Haven, CT, 1983), comparative study of cameralism and its transplantation to Imperial Russia.

  D. L. Ransel, The Politics of Catherinean Russia (New Haven, CT, 1975), highly original analysis of clan and politics.

  C. Whittaker, Russian Monarchy: Eighteenth-Century Rulers and Writers in Political Dialogue (DeKalb, Ill., 2003), on the emerging discourse about monarchy and its legitimacy.

  6. PRE-REFORM RUSSIA, 1801–1855

  W. L. Blackwell, The Beginnings of Russian Industrialization, 1800–1860 (Princeton, NJ, 1968), on obstacles and achievements of economic growth in pre-reform era.

  R. Friedman, Masculinity, Autocracy, and the Russian University, 1804–1863 (New York, 2005), considers how university studies shaped the sexual and political identity of Russian males.

  J. M. Hartley, Alexander I (London, 1994), informed, readable survey.

  A. von Haxthausen, Studies on the Interior of Russia (Chicago, IL, 1972), highly influential German analysis of Russian society in the 1840s.

  S. L. Hoch, Serfdom and Social Control in Russia (Chicago, IL, 1986), case study of a serf estate in Tambov province.

  W. B. Lincoln, In the Vanguard of Reform (De Kalb, Ill., 1982), on the Nicholaevan pre-reforms and the officials who laid the groundwork for the Great Reforms.

  ———Nicholas I, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias (De Kalb, Ill., 1989), positive, revisionist assessment of the emperor, with clear summary of state policy.

  M. Malia, Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism, 1812–1855 (New York, 1971), brilliant intellectual history of both the age and the progenitor of Russian agrarian socialist thought.

  A. M. Martin, Romantics, Reformers, Reactionaries: Russian Conservative Thought and Politics in the Reign of Alexander I (DeKalb, Ill., 1997), on political thought in the wake of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era.

  D. Moon, Russian Peasants and Tsarist Legislation on the Eve of Reform (Houndmills, 1992), on the serf question and stability in the pre-reform era.

  M. Raeff, Michael Speransky (The Hague, 1957), political biography within the context of Russia’s institutional development in the early nineteenth century.

  J. Randolph, The House in the Garden: The Bakunin Family and the Romance of Russian Idealism (Ithaca, NY, 2007), microhistory of the Bakunin family suggesting a linkage between the personal and ideological.

  M. Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews (Philadelphia, PA, 1983), informative study of Jewish policy based on published sources.

  E. K. Wirtschafter, From Serf to Russian Soldier (Princeton, NJ, 1990), on the social conditions of lower ranks in pre-reform era.

  7. REFORM AND COUNTER-REFORM, 1855–1890

  N. Breyfogle, Heretics and Colonizers: Forging Russia’s Empire in the South Caucasus (Ithaca, NY, 2005), on the role of Russian sectarians in colonizing the south Caucasus between the 1830s and 1890s.

  D. R. Brower, The Russian City between Tradition and Modernity, 1850–1900 (Berkeley, CA, 1990), excellent synthesis of urban history in post-reform era.

  B. Eklof, Russian Peasant Schools (Berkeley, CA, 1986), on the peasant role in shaping the content of elementary education.

  ———and J. Bushnell (eds.), Russia’s Great Reforms, 1855–1881 (Bloomington, Ind., 1994), important collection of essays on individual great reforms.

  C. Ely, This Meager Nature: Landscape and National Identity in Imperial Russia (DeKalb, Ill., 2002), stimulating study of the role of nineteenth-century Russian painting and literature in making landscape an integral part of national identity.

  T. E. Emmons and W. Vucinich (eds.), Russia: An Experiment in Local Self-Government (Cambridge, 1982), on the composition and role of the zemstvo in the post-reform era.

  D. Field, The End of Serfdom (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), classic monograph on noble and state interaction in shaping the terms of emancipation.

  ———Rebels in the Name of the Tsar (Boston, MA, 1989), penetrating analysis of two major peasant disorders in 1860s and 1870s.

  G. L. Freeze, The Parish Clergy in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Princeton, NJ, 1983), study of church reform (goals, politics, problems) within the larger context of social and political change.

  C. Johanson, Women’s Struggle for Higher Education in Russia, 1855–1900 (Kingston, 1987), on the problem of female access to higher education.

  W. B. Lincoln, The Great Reforms (DeKalb, Ill., 1990), best general overview of great reforms.

  D. Staliunas, Making Russians: Meaning and Practice of Russification in Lithuania and Belarus after 1863 (Amsterdam, 2007), case study of nationality policy and its impact on the north-west.

  S. F. Starr, Decentralization and Self Government in Russia, 1830–1870 (Princeton, NJ, 1972), on under-institutionalization and the zemstvo reform of 1860s.

  R. Stites, The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia (2nd edn., Princeton, NJ, 1991), survey of different streams of women’s movement.

  F. Venturi, Roots of Revolution (Chicago, IL, 1983), detailed narrative account.

  T. R. Weeks, Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia (De Kalb, Ill., 1996), important monograph on the western borderlands, with particular attention to Polish and Jewish nationalism.

  P. A. Zaionchkovskii, The Russian Autocracy under Alexander III (Gulf Breeze, Fla., 1976), on counter-reforms of 1880s.

  ———The Russian Autocracy in Crisis, 1878–1882 (Gulf Breeze, Fla., 1979), on the dramatic confrontation of autocracy and revolutionary terrorism.

  R. E. Zelnik, Labor and Society in Tsarist Russia (Stanford, Calif., 1971), on the early history of the labour movement and state response.

  ———Law and Disorder on the Narova River: The Kreenholm Strike of 1872 (Berkeley, CA, 1995), microhistory of an early labour conflict.

  8. REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA, 1890–1914

  A. Ascher, The Russian Revolution of 1905 (2 vols., Stanford, Calif, 1988–92), best synthesis of recent scholarship.

  ———P. A. Stolypin: The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia (Stanford, Calif., 2001), excellent study of Stolypin’s attempt to build a new order.

  V. E. Bonnell, Roots of Rebellion (Berkeley, CA, 1983), detailed account of worker politics and mobilization, 1905–14.

  J. Bradley, Muzhik and Muscovite (Berkeley, CA, 1985), urban history of Moscow in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

  J. Brooks, When Russia Learned to Read (Princeton, NJ, 1985), study of popular reading culture, consumption, and major themes.

  J. Bushnell, Mutiny and Repression (Bloomington, Ind., 1985), close analysis of the uneven pattern of soldiers’ involvement in revolution.

  C. J. Chulos, Converging Worlds: Religion and Community in Peasant Russia, 1861–1917 (DeKalb, Ill., 2003), study of popular Orthodoxy in Voronezh province.

  B. E. Clements et al. (eds.), Russia’s Women (Berkeley, CA, 1991), on women’s experiences and problems in modern Russia.

  E. W. Clowes et al. (eds.), Between Tsar and People (Princeton, NJ, 1991), on the emergence of civil society.

  H. J. Coleman, Russian Baptists and Spiritual Revolution, 1905–1929 (Bloomington, Ind., 2005), model study of Baptism and its relationship to tsarist and Soviet state.

  O. Crisp and L. H. Edmondson (eds.), Civil Rights in Imperial Russia (Oxford, 1989), on reform and civil rights in early twentieth century.

  J. Daly, The Watchful State: Security Police and Opposition in Russia, 1906–1917 (DeKalb, Ill., 2004), positive portrait of the political police in its struggle to combat the revolutionary movement.

  T. Emmons, Formation of Political Parties and the First National Elections in Russia (Cambridge, 1983), on liberal and moderate parties as they prepare for the first Duma.

  L. Engelstein, The Keys to Happiness (Ithaca, NY, 1992), a study of Russian society and culture seen through the prism of sex and gender.

  O. Figes, A People’s Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution (New York, 1996), broad narrative accou
nt from the 1890s to the mid-1920s.

  W. C. Fuller, Jr., Civil-Military Conflict in Imperial Russia, 1881–1914 (Princeton, NJ, 1985), insightful study of tension between military professionalism and civil service.

  C. Gaudin, Ruling Peasants: Village and State in Late Imperial Russia (DeKalb, Ill., 2007), interesting exploration of peasant responses to ever more intrusive state from the 1880s.

  M. F. Hamm (ed.), The City in Late Imperial Russia (Bloomington, Ind., 1986), case studies of several leading cities.

  J. F. Hutchinson, Politics and Public Health in Revolutionary Russia, 1890–1913 (Baltimore, MD, 1990), study of medical profession and its response to issues of public health and politics.

  D. C. B. Lieven, Russia and the Origins of the First World War (New York, 1983), on domestic causes of Russian entry into war.

  ———Russia’s Rulers under the Old Regime (New Haven, CT, 1989), prosopographical and biographical study of State Council.

  R. T. Manning, The Crisis of the Old Order in Russia (Princeton, NJ, 1982), on shift of gentry from opposition to a conservative defence of old order.

  S. Morrissey, Suicide and the Body Politic in Imperial Russia (Cambridge, 2006), examines the discourse on suicide to explore issues like selfhood and institutional conflict and power.

  L. McReynolds, The News under Russia’s Old Régime (Princeton, NJ, 1991), on the development of a mass circulation press.

  J. Neuberger, Hooliganism (Berkeley, CA, 1993), on youth and crime in St Petersburg.

  J. Pallot, Land Reform in Russia, 1906–1917 (Oxford, 1999), critical account of the Stolypin reforms from the perspective of peasant responses.

  A. J. Rieber, Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia (Chapel Hill, NC, 1982), sophisticated account of merchant-industrial élites in post-reform era.

  R. G. Robbins, The Tsar’s Viceroys (Ithaca, NY, 1987), on profile and role of governors at end of old regime.

  H. Rogger, Jewish Policies and Right-Wing Politics in Imperial Russia (Berkeley, CA, 1986), an important series of essays on the complexities of state policy and politics.

  J. A. Sharp, Russian Modernism between East and West: Natalia Goncharova and the Moscow Avant-Garde (New York, 2006), on the creativity and achievements of Goncharov and Russian modernism before the outbreak of war.

  V. Shevzov, Russian Orthodoxy on the Eve of Revolution (New York, 2004), study of lay piety in late Imperial Russia.

  J. Smele and A. Heywood (eds.), The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives (London, 2005), essays reflecting recent scholarship and especially valuable for the attention to the provinces and periphery.

  E. C. Thaden (ed.), Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, 1855–1914 (Princeton, NJ, 1981), valuable collection of essays on post-reform minority policy.

  A. M. Verner, The Crisis of Autocracy (Princeton, NJ, 1990), close analysis of the emperor and bureaucratic élite responses to the challenges of revolution.

  T. H. Von Laue, Sergei Witte and the Industrialization of Russia (New York, 1963), classic account of Witte and his industrialization policies.

  N. B. Weissman, Reform in Tsarist Russia (New Brunswick, NJ, 1981), on the problem of rebuilding a more effective system of local government.

  A. L. Wildman, The Making of a Workers’ Revolution: Russian Social Democracy, 1891–1903 (Chicago, IL, 1967), on the relations between Marxist intellectuals and politicized workers.

  R. E. Zelnik (ed.), Workers and Intelligentsia in Late Imperial Russia: Realities, Representations, Reflections (Berkeley, CA, 1999), valuable essays on worker-intelligentsia relations in the pre-revolution.

  III. SOVIET HISTORY AND BEYOND

  8. GENERAL HISTORIES AND MONOGRAPHS

  K. E. Bailes, Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin (Princeton, NJ, 1978), path-breaking study of the Soviet technical intelligentsia.

  J. S. Curtiss, The Russian Church and the Soviet State, 1917–50 (New York, 1953), balanced treatment of Soviet religious policies.

  R. W. Davies et al. (eds.), The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913–1945 (Cambridge, 1994).

  J. Degras (ed.), Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy, 1917–41, 3 vols. (New York, 1978), important collection of documents.

  M. Fainsod, How Russia Is Ruled (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1965), classic institutional and political history from pre-revolutionary roots to the Khrushchev era.

  J. L. Gaddis, Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States (2nd edn., New York, 1990), good overview of Soviet–American relations.

  W. Z. Goldman, Women, the State, and Revolution (Cambridge, 1993), on Soviet family policy from the revolution to the mid-1930s.

  L. R. Graham, Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union (New York, 1987), treats the impact of ideology on science.

  T. Hasegawa, The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations, 2 vols. (Berkeley, CA, 1998), comprehensive account of the territorial dispute that has divided the two powers since the eighteenth century.

  M. Heller and A. Nekrich, Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present, 2 vols. (New York, 1992), vigorously anti-Soviet émigré history, with fresh detail on many subjects.

  G. A. Hosking, The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1993), excellent, well-informed account.

  C. Kelly, Children’s World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890–1991 (New Haven, CT, 2007), on the history of children and adolescents in twentieth-century Russia.

  P. Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State (Cambridge, 1985), insightful treatment of propaganda as critical instrument in early phase of Soviet state-building

  ———Cinema and Soviet Society (2nd edn., New York, 2001), reinterpretation of film and its impact, 1917–53.

  M. Lewin, The Making of the Soviet System (New York, 1985), analysis by the doyen of the first generation of historians of the Soviet period.

  M. McAuley Soviet Politics, 1917–1991 (rev. edn., Oxford, 1992), standard survey of political history.

  ———Russia since 1914 (Harlow, 1998), useful reference source with brief thematic entries as well as a detailed chronology, biographies, and statistics.

  R. McNeal et al. (eds.), Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (5 vols., Toronto, 1974–82), basic set of translated official party resolutions.

  M. E. Malia, The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917–1991 (New York, 1994), lively, critical account of Soviet ideology and rule.

  E. Mawdsley and S. White, The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev (Oxford, 2000), prosopography of the Central Committee from 1917 to 1991.

  J. L. Nogee and R. H. Donaldson, Soviet Foreign Policy since World War II (4th edn., New York, 1992), authoritative, wide-ranging account of foreign policy.

  A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, 1917–91 (3rd edn., Harmondsworth, 1992), standard, but dated, history of Soviet economy.

  R. R. Reese, The Soviet Military Experience: A History of the Soviet Army, 1917–1991 (New York, 2000), history of the Soviet army and its development.

  ———Red Commanders: A Social History of the Soviet Army Officer Corps, 1918–1991 (Lawrence, Kan., 2005), profile of the Soviet military officers, but more in terms of organizational than social history.

  W. G. Rosenberg (ed.), Bolshevik Visions, 2 vols. (Ann Arbor, MI, 1990), valuable collection of documents on the cultural revolution.

  L. Schapiro, The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (2nd edn., New York, 1971), full political history of the Soviet Communist Party.

  R. Service, A History of Twentieth-Century Russia (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), detailed survey, with emphasis on political history.

  G. Simon, Nationalism and Policy towards the Nationalities in the Soviet Union (Boulder, Colo., 1991), systematic overview of Soviet nationality policies.

  R. Stites, Revolutionary Dreams (New York, 1991), sweeping account of utopian vision in early Soviet culture.<
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  R. G. Suny (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia, iii: The Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 2006), collection of essays on key spheres of Soviet history.

  A. Vatlin and L. Malashenko (eds.), Piggy Fox and the Sword of Revolution: Bolshevik Self-Portraits (New Haven, CT, 2006), caricature sketches by members of the Bolshevik élite in the 1920s-1930s.

  D. Weiner, A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev (Berkeley, CA, 1999), environmentalism during the Soviet era.

  9. RUSSIA IN WAR AND REVOLUTION, 1914–1921

  E. Acton, Rethinking the Russian Revolution (London, 1990), critical analysis of historiography on 1917.

  ———V. Iu. Cherniaev, and W. G. Rosenberg (eds.), Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921 (Bloomington, Ind., 1997), essays and guide to the revolutionary era.

  P. Avrich, Kronstadt, 1921 (Princeton, NJ, 1991), standard account.

  S. Badcock, Politics and the People in Revolutionary Russia (Cambridge, 2007), well-researched attempt to explain the failure of the Provisional Government in 1917.

  F. Benvenuti, The Bolsheviks and the Red Army, 1918–22 (Cambridge, 1988), on party-military relations.

  R. P. Browder and A. Kerensky (eds.), The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: Documents, 3 vols. (Stanford, Calif., 1961), valuable but tendentious collection of documents.

  E. N. Burdzhalov, Russia’s Second Revolution: The February 1917 Uprising in Petrograd (Bloomington, Ind., 1987), masterly account of the Petrograd revolution.

  E. H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–1923, 3 vols. (London, 1985), classic study of the revolution and civil war.

  W. H. Chamberlin, The Russian Revolution, 1917–1921, 2 vols. (Princeton, NJ, 1987), reprint of well-informed, highly readable account.

  B. Farnsworth, Alexandra Kollontai: Socialism, Feminism, and the Bolshevik Revolution (Stanford, Calif., 1980), biography of leading feminist, and a useful introduction to the ‘women’s question’ in the early Soviet era.

  M. Ferro, October 1917: A Social History of the Russian Revolution (London, 1980), examines the aspirations and expectations of different social groups.