Awards

• Winner of Outstanding Academic Title 2023

Overview

Reading Darwin in Imperial Russia: Literature and Ideas expands upon the cataloging efforts of earlier scholarship on Darwin’s reception in Russia to analyze the rich cultural context and vital historical background of writings inspired by the arrival of Darwin’s ideas in Russia. Starting with the first Russian translation of The Origin of Species in 1864, educated Russians eagerly read Darwin’s works and reacted in a variety of ways. From enthusiasm to skepticism to hostility, these reactions manifested in a variety of published works, starting with the translations themselves, as well as critical reviews, opinion journalism, literary fiction, and polemical prose. The reception of Darwin spanned reverent, didactic, ironic, and sarcastic modes of interpretation. This book examines some of the best-known authors of the second half of the nineteenth century (Dostoevsky, Chernyshevsky, Chekhov) and others less well-known or nearly forgotten (Danilevsky, Timiriazev, Markevich, Strakhov) to explore the multi-faceted impact of Darwin’s ideas on Russian educated society. While elements of Darwin’s Russian reception were comparable to other countries, each author reveals distinctly Russian concerns tied to the meaning and consequences of the challenge posed by Darwinism. The scholars in this volume demonstrate not only what the authors wrote, but why they took their unique perspectives.

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9781666920840

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Reviews

Over the past few years there has been a veritable renaissance of interest in the history of science in imperial Russia. The Reception of Darwin in Imperial Russian Literature and Intellectual History is an invaluable contribution to this project. The articles it contains are original, erudite and lucid, both broad in scope and detailed in analysis. They provide a new perspective on familiar authors like Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Chernyshevsky, but also on lesser studied (but extremely important) intellectuals, like Strakhov and Danilevsky. Taken as a whole, the book greatly expands our understanding of Darwin's reception in Russia and, alongside the classic studies by Todes and Vucinich, will serve as one of the reference guides on the topic for years to come. Every scholar of nineteenth-century Russian literature and culture should have a copy in their library. -- Greta Matzner-Gore, University of Southern California

Author Information

Andrew M. Drozd is associate professor of Russian at the University of Alabama. Brendan G. Mooney is fellow at the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies and visiting assistant professor of Russian at Miami University of Ohio. Stephen M. Woodburn is professor of history at Southwestern College in Kansas.

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