Overview

‘It is unlikely that a clearer, more stimulating account of the Russians’ extraordinary period of imperial history will be written.’ Philip Marsden, Spectator Geoffrey Hosking’s landmark book provides us with a new prism through which to view Russian history by posing the apparently simple question: what is Russia’s national identity? Hosking answers this with brilliant originality: his thesis is that the needs of Russia’s empire prevented the creation of a Russian nation. The Tsars, and before them the Grand Dukes of Moscow, were empire builders rather than nation builders and, as consequence, profoundly alienated ordinary Russians.

Full Product Details

9780006383727

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Hosking's book is a tour de force of historical argument, vividly written [and] courageously argumentative.' Michael Ignatieff, Observer 'Brilliant!an elegantly written, humane and rigorous work of empirical history.' Michael Burleigh, Independent on Sunday ' Russia: People and Empire is the most interesting and authoritative account of Russian imperial history in English. It is a masterful synthesis, intelligent and lucid, passionately argumentative, but always fair, which should be read by everyone who wants to understand the origins of Russia's predicament today.' Orlando Figes, The Times

'Hosking's book is a tour de force of historical argument, vividly written [and] courageously argumentative.' Michael Ignatieff, Observer 'Brilliant...an elegantly written, humane and rigorous work of empirical history.' Michael Burleigh, Independent on Sunday ' Russia: People and Empire is the most interesting and authoritative account of Russian imperial history in English. It is a masterful synthesis, intelligent and lucid, passionately argumentative, but always fair, which should be read by everyone who wants to understand the origins of Russia's predicament today.' Orlando Figes, The Times

A valuable reinterpretation of Russian history in the light of the dissolution of the Soviet empire, by Hosking (History/University of London). His theme is that the building of the empire obstructed the flowering of the nation and is more fundamental in explaining what happened than either autocracy or the backwardness of the country. The tsarist regime, for example, believed it more important to conquer Siberia than to exploit it. Hosking even interprets the response of the peasantry at the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia less in terms of their nationalism than as a response to Napoleon's brutal methods and a reflection of their belief that, if they served, they would be freed. Hosking illustrates how, time and again, the needs of empire took precedence over actions that would have ameliorated growing divisions between the classes: The efforts of Peter the Great to develop an administrative elite by cultivating Western manners and adopting the French language separated that elite further from the Russian peasantry; the emancipation of the serfs left the peasants with abiding grievances and in some respects reinforced their segregation. Even the opportunity to link the monarchy more firmly with the people in resisting the Germans during the First World War was thrown away by the refusal of the tsar to appoint a government of public confidence. The final success of the Bolsheviks owed little to their ideology and everything to their readiness to grant, however temporarily, what the peasantry actually wanted. This theme has, as Hosking notes, profound contemporary implications: If Russia can find a new identity for itself, then autocracy and backwardness may well fade. Often more thematic than descriptive - the details of the 1917 Revolution itself are given only cursory attention - and better perhaps at the start of the period than at the end, Hosking nonetheless gives a thoughtful, often penetrating review of a complex and important perspective. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Geoffrey Hosking has been Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic Studies, University of London, since 1984. He is the author of the award-winning History of the Soviet Union for Fontana Press. In 1988, Professor Hosking was invited to give the annual BBC Reith lectures and spoke on the subject of ‘Change in Contemporary Soviet Society’, in doing so accurately predicting the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available