Religion and Identity in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Festschrift for Paul Bushkovitch

Erudition and Wisdom, Insight and Delight

Religion and Identity in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Festschrift for Paul Bushkovitch. Nikolaos A. Chrissidis, Cathy J. Potter, David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, and Jennifer B. Spock, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2011, 1–8.       Erudition and Wisdom, Insight and Delight Nancy Shields Kollmann These   pairs   of   attributes   sketch   only   the   most   remarkable   of   Paul   Bushko-­‐‑ vitch’s   qualities   as   a   historian.   His   knowledge   is   deep   and   profound,   his   historical  judgment  is  sound  and  penetrating,  and  his  work  is  regularly  pep-­‐‑ pered  with  nuance,  irony,  and  wit.  We  are  all  in  his  debt  for  a  wide-­‐‑ranging   historical  opus  that  illuminates  unsuspected  corners  of  historical  experience,   that  rectifies  mistaken  historiography,  and  that  reshapes  how  we  understand   such  fundamental  aspects  of  Russian  history  as  the  church,  the  elite,  and  the   great  reforming  tsar,  Peter  the  Great.  One  cannot  do  justice  to  all  his  work  in  a   brief  essay.  Let  me  sketch  out  the  highlights  and  pause  on  some  of  my  per-­‐‑ sonal  favorites  from  among  his  many  books  and  articles.     One   must   first   remark   on,   and   marvel   at,   the   breadth   of   his   historical   research.   He   has   ranged   from   Moscow   merchants   to   hesychast   saints,   from   pious  boyars  in  the  16th  century  to  intrigues  at  Peter  the  Great’s  court,  from   19th-­‐‑century  historians  to  17th-­‐‑century  Russian  envoys  to  London.  Some  may   not  recall,  for  example,  that  Paul’s  first  book  was  a  social  and  economic  his-­‐‑ tory   of   Muscovite   merchants   and   trade,   since   he   moved   from   that   social-­‐‑ economic  history  context  to  more  cultural  and  political  topics  in  later  work.   But  The  Merchants  of  Moscow,  1580‒1650,  published  in  1980,  is  a  valuable  book.   In  its  seven  central  chapters,  it  sums  up  the  conditions  of  trade  for  the  Mos-­‐‑ cow   merchants   and   the   volume   and   commodities   of   trade   in   several   key   arenas—the  White  Sea,  the  Baltic,  Poland,   the   Ottoman  Empire,  and   Persia,   domestic  trade  including  Siberia,  and  salt  production.  For  this  factual  mate-­‐‑ rial   alone,   the   book   is   a   great   resource.   But   its   interpretive   contribution   is   important,  and  very  revealing  of  Paul’s  style  as  a  historian.     This  book  jumps  head  on  into  a  debate  that  goes  back  to  the  17th  century   about  the  dearth  in  Muscovy  of  a  “middle  class.”  Modern  historians  had  am-­‐‑ plified  the  observations  of  early  modern  Europeans  to  declare  that  the  “miss-­‐‑ ing  bourgeoisie”  doomed  Russia  to  being  backward  and  even,  in  the  eyes  of   some,   never   achieving   the   promises   of   the   Western   heritage.   One   aspect   of   this  argument  involved  the  role  of  the  gosti  (the  tsar’s  privileged  merchants)   of  the  city  of  Moscow.  Appointed  by  the  state  to  carry  out  key  government   tasks—running   monopolies,   managing   customs,   selling   the   tsar’s   goods— these  merchants  were  said  to  have  never  had  a  chance  to  amass  capital  or  to   survive   over   generations.   This   argument   had   been   advanced   not   only   by   Soviet  scholars,  but  also  by  an  American  historian,  Samuel  H.  Baron,  who  de-­‐‑ 2 NANCY SHIELDS KOLLMANN voted  several  seminal  articles  to  this  issue  in  the  1970s.1  Bushkovitch  entered   the  fray  with  his  typical,  reasoned  approach.  Taking  an  innovative  turn,  he  set   the  Moscow  merchants  in  the  context  of  early  modern  Eastern  European  mer-­‐‑ chants   and   thereby   was   able   to   show   that   Moscow   merchants’   longevity   in   trade  and  ability  to  prosper  was  not  far  off  that  of  their  East  European  coun-­‐‑ terparts,  regardless  of  the  different  economies  in  which  they  functioned.  Fur-­‐‑ thermore,  he  went  on  to  argue  that  “the  notion  that  the  state  only  hindered   the  merchants  excludes  important  evidence  to  the   contrary”  and  to  identify   “phenomena   that   suggest   a   two-­‐‑sided   relationship   between   the   merchants   and   the   state”   (151).   As   evidence   of   a   less   predatory   relationship   between   merchant   and   state,   he   cited   the   merchants’   ability   to   prosper   in   various   revenue-­‐‑collecting   roles—tax   farming,   collecting   customs,   managing   tavern   monopolies—providing   ample   detail   on   an   underappreciated   aspect   of   the   argument.  What  is  remarkable  here  is  not  only  the  judiciousness  of  his  judg-­‐‑ ment,  but  the  civility  of  his  prose;  he  managed  to  challenge  a  historian  senior   to  him  in  a  way  that  never  precluded  him  from  maintaining  close  professional   ties  with  Sam  Baron  throughout  his  career.     From  merchants  Paul  turned  his  attention  to  the  church,  resulting  in  some   fascinating  articles  and  a  book  of  fundamental  importance,  Religion  and  Society   in  Russia:  The  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries,  published  in  1992.  This  book   is  a  tour  de  force.  It  represents  two  accomplishments.  First,  it  surveys  the  evo-­‐‑ lution  of  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church...