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The Lena Goldfields Massacre and the Crisis of the Late Tsarist State
In 1912 a thin line of Russian soldiers, confronted by a large crowd of gold miners on strike for several weeks, reacted with fear and anger. At their officers’ orders, they opened fire, shooting five hundred unarmed protestors. The event reverberated across Russia. The Lena goldfields massacre can be viewed from several distinct viewpoints, each presenting a contrasting story. Author Michael Melancon avoids prematurely picking a “right” way of looking at the massacre. Instead, he explores all aspects of the incident, from the despair of the miners at the poor conditions they faced, to the calculations and priorities of the mining entrepreneurs and state officials, and even the rationale of the soldiers who pulled the triggers. The Lena Goldfields Massacre and the Crisis of the Late Tsarist State will appeal to anyone interested in labor relations, in revolutionary movements, and in transitions associated with modernization. Its comparative framework will be helpful for generalists and Europeanists. It will also provide food for thought for those who seek a carefully researched examination of Russian society during the early twentieth century.
The Seductions of Community
The concept of 'community' is ubiquitous in the way we talk and think about life in the twenty-first century. Political and economic projects from rainforest conservation to urban empowerment zones focus on 'the community' as the appropriate vehicle and target of change. Some scholars see a decline of community and predict dire social consequences; others criticize the concept itself for its ideological baggage and lack of clear definition. Moving the debate to a deeper level, the contributors to this volume aspire to understand the various ways 'community' is deployed and the work it performs in different contexts. They compare the many cases where scholars and activists use 'community' generically with instances in which the notion of community is lesspervasive or even non-existent. How does a community facilitate governance or capital accumulation? In what ways does it articulate these two forces in local and translocal contexts? What are the unintended consequences of deploying the concept - and what, too, are the potential consequences of criticizing our fascination with it?
The Rise of Western Power
The West's history is one of extraordinary success; no other region, empire, culture, or civilization has left so powerful a mark upon the world. The Rise of Western Power charts the West's achievements-representative government, the free enterprise system, modern science, and the rule of law-as well as its misdeeds-two frighteningly destructive World Wars, the Holocaust, imperialistic domination, and the Atlantic slave trade. Adopting a global perspective, Jonathan Daly explores the contributions of other cultures and civilizations to the West's emergence. Historical, geographical, and cultural factors all unfold in the narrative. Adopting a thematic structure, the book traces the rise of Western power through a series of revolutions-social, political, technological, military, commercial, and industrial, among others. The result is a clear and engaging introduction to the history of Western civilization.
A Companion to Russian History
This companion comprises 28 essays by international scholars offering an analytical overview of the development of Russian history from the earliest Slavs through to the present day. Includes essays by both prominent and emerging scholars from Russia, Great Britain, the US, and Canada Analyzes the entire sweep of Russian history from debates over how to identify the earliest Slavs, through the Yeltsin Era, and future prospects for post-Soviet Russia Offers an extensive review of the medieval period, religion, culture, and the experiences of ordinary people Offers a balanced review of both traditional and cutting-edge topics, demonstrating the range and dynamism of the field
Revolution and the People in Russia and China
A unique comparative account of the roots of Communist revolution in Russia and China. Steve Smith examines the changing social identities of peasants who settled in St Petersburg from the 1880s to 1917 and in Shanghai from the 1900s to the 1940s. Russia and China, though very different societies, were both dynastic empires with backward agrarian economies that suddenly experienced the impact of capitalist modernity. This book argues that far more happened to these migrants than simply being transformed from peasants into workers. It explores the migrants' identification with their native homes; how they acquired new understandings of themselves as individuals and new gender and national identities. It asks how these identity transformations fed into the wider political, social and cultural processes that culminated in the revolutionary crises in Russia and China, and how the Communist regimes that emerged viewed these transformations in the working classes they claimed to represent.
The Russian Revolution, 1917
Rex Wade presents an account of one of the pivotal events of modern history, combining his own long study of the revolution with the best of contemporary scholarship. Within an overall narrative that provides a clear description of the 1917 revolution, he introduces several new approaches on its political history and the complexity of the October Revolution. Wade clears away many of the myths and misconceptions that have clouded studies of the period. He also gives due space to the social history of the revolution and incorporates people and places too often left out of the story, including women, national minority peoples, and peasantry front soldiers, enabling a more complete history to emerge. The 2005 second edition of this highly readable book has been thoroughly revised and expanded. It will prove invaluable reading to anyone interested in Russian history.
Imagining Russian Regions
In Imagining Russian Regions: Subnational Identity and Civil Society in Nineteenth-Century Russia, Susan Smith-Peter shows how ideas of civil society encouraged the growth of subnational identity in Russia before 1861. Adam Smith and G.W.F. Hegel’s ideas of civil society influenced Russians and the resulting plans to stimulate the growth of civil society also formed subnational identities. It challenges the view of the provinces as empty space held by Nikolai Gogol, who rejected the new non-noble provincial identity and welcomed a noble-only district identity. By 1861, these non-noble and noble publics would come together to form a multi-estate provincial civil society whose promise was not fulfilled due to the decision of the government to keep the peasant estate institutionally separate.
Education in World History
Education in World History shows how broad currents in transnational history have interacted with trends in educational organization and teaching practices over time. From antiquity and early classical societies to present day, this book highlights the ways in which changes in religious and intellectual life and economic patterns in key world regions have generated developments in education. Since the postclassical period, cross-cultural connections have also influenced educational change. In more recent times, transnational dialogues and mobility have played a vital role in shaping educational patterns. Ranging through South and East Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, the book also cons...
Telling October
All revolutionary regimes seek to legitimize themselves through foundation narratives that, told and retold, become constituent parts of the social fabric, erasing or pushing aside alternative histories. Frederick C. Corney draws on a wide range of sources—archives, published works, films—to explore the potent foundation narrative of Russia's Great October Socialist Revolution. He shows that even as it fought a bloody civil war with the forces that sought to displace it, the Bolshevik regime set about creating a new historical genealogy of which the October Revolution was the only possible culmination. This new narrative was forged through a complex process that included the sacralizatio...
The Purpose of the First World War
Nearly fourteen million people died during the First World War. But why, and for what reason? Already many contemporaries saw the Great War as a "pointless carnage" (Pope Benedict XV, 1917). Was there a point, at least in the eyes of the political and military decision makers? How did they justify the losses, and why did they not try to end the war earlier? In this volume twelve international specialists analyses and compares the hopes and expectations of the political and military leaders of the main belligerent countries and of their respective societies. It shows that the war aims adopted during the First World War were not, for the most part, the cause of the conflict, but a reaction to it, an attempt to give the tragedy a purpose - even if the consequence was to oblige the belligerents to go on fighting until victory. The volume tries to explain why - and for what - the contemporaries thought that they had to fight the Great War.
