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  • The Europeanized Elite in Russia, 1762–1825: Public Role and Subjective Self ed. by Andreas Schönle, Andrei Zorin, Alexei Evstratov
  • Lucien J. Frary (bio)
Andreas Schönle, Andrei Zorin, and Alexei Evstratov (Eds.), The Europeanized Elite in Russia, 1762–1825: Public Role and Subjective Self (DeKalb: Northern Illinois Press, 2016). 371pp., ills. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-0-87580-747-8.

This innovative and challenging volume probes the dramatic transformation of the Russian nobility from the post-Petrine period (1762) until the Decembrist revolt of 1825. Bringing together an international group of scholars with the aim of advancing the scholarly agenda of imperial Russian history, the editors succeed in presenting a collection that promises to inspire distinctive research on a variety of topics related to the objective culture and subjective world of the Russian nobility. The volume provides fertile material for comparative inquiry with other countries, notably Turkey and Japan, where the state responded to presumed backwardness by forcibly creating an educated Westernized elite. What makes the Russian experience particularly intriguing is its present-day relevance: “Europe,” Gorbachev proclaimed, “is our common home,” and Moscow’s method of nurturing a technologically sophisticated albeit obedient and privileged social group endures.1

The volume opens with a very strong essay interpreting imperial Russia’s aristocracy by Andreas Schönle and Andrei Zorin. Tsar Peter I, initially motivated by the need for a more robust military and civil service elite, imposed a system whereby merit, education, and dedication to the state would endow the nation with a leadership best prepared to survive the challenges of modernity. A radical inner transformation of the Russian nobility resulted, enshrined by the Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility (1762) and the Charter of the Nobility (1785), which encouraged the elite not just to become like Europeans, but to be European. Reacting to the seminal studies of Marc Raeff and Iurii Lotman, the authors aim to uncover the inner ecosphere of Russia’s tiny ruling class.2 They argue that instead of a linear progression of alienation (Raeff) or a semiotic process of disassembling (Lotman), the Europeanization (or Westernization) of the [End Page 250] Russian nobility occurred in fits and starts, through multifarious, fluid, shifting, and hybrid interactions with the West, involving emotions, books, institutions, wealth, sociability, religion, theater, laws, the public sphere, and more. Whereas much outright copying of Western culture and practices took place, the Russian experiment was unique in that its selected crème was determined to maintain their native roots, which, paradoxically, could be both championed and disparaged. The end result was a syncretic mix of imported and indigenous traits that was sui generis and completely Russian.

Divided into seven chapters (each prefaced by a mini introduction followed by two essays), fourteen case studies illuminate a broad spectrum of objective and subjective perspectives. Chapter 1, “Internalizing Public Roles: Zealous Servicemen and Curious Noblemen,” features Igor Fedyukin’s foray into changing lexical perceptions of ambition and promotion among the military and civil service corps, and Alexander Iosad’s exploration of inquiries by educated Russians into natural philosophy. Chapter 2, “The Court and the Family: Cuckolded Husbands and Lonely Wives,” opens with Alexei Evstratov’s investigation of marital infidelity and theatrical performance at the Russian court, followed by an essay on aristocratic women letter-writers by Michelle Lamarche Marrese. Chapter 3, “The Domestic Economy: Between Ostentation and Rationalization,” comprises studies by Elena Korchmina and Andreas Schönle on a vital yet underexplored aspect of the nobility: their finances. Both authors provide fascinating details regarding the emergence of record keeping, budgetary consciousness, and public self-fashioning among Russia’s wealthy magnates.

A survey of everyday lives of Russian officers by Stanislav Andriainen and a depiction by Mikhail Velizhev of Europeanization through the unpublished letters of Vasilii Viazemskii constitute Chapter 4, “Officers Off the Battlefield: Managers and Thinkers.” In Chapter 5, “Alternative Sociabilities and Spiritualities,” Andrei Zorin provides an analysis of emotions, morality, mysticism, and modern sociability among the Moscow Rosicrucians. The chapter also features an enthralling contribution by Mikhail Velizhev on the Moscow English Club during the early nineteenth century. The authors show that entities like the Russian Masonic lodges and the English Club...

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