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Scenarios of Power
This new and abridged edition of Scenarios of Power is a concise version of Richard Wortman's award-winning study of Russian monarchy from the seventeenth century until 1917. The author breaks new ground by showing how imperial ceremony and imagery were not simply displays of the majesty of the sovereign and his entourage, but also instruments central to the exercise of absolute power in a multinational empire. In developing this interpretation, Wortman presents vivid descriptions of coronations, funerals, parades, trips through the realm, and historical celebrations and reveals how these ceremonies were constructed or reconstructed to fit the political and cultural narratives in the lives and reigns of successive tsars. He describes the upbringing of the heirs as well as their roles in these narratives and relates their experiences to the persistence of absolute monarchy in Russia long after its demise in Europe.
The Power of Language and Rhetoric in Russian Political History
This book examines the rhetorical force of certain key words in the discourses of Russian state, political thought, and literature. It shows how terms for cultured conduct (kul'turnost'), political affection (love, liubov', joy-radost' etc.), personhood (lichnost'), truth (pravda) and geographical integrity (tsel'nost') assumed almost sacral meaning. It considers how these terms took on a life of their own, imposing the designs of the Russian state and defining the hopes of educated society in the process. By exploring the usage of these words in a wide range of texts, Richard Wortman provides glimpses into the ideas and feelings of leading figures and thinkers in Russian history, from Peter the Great to Alexander Herzen and Nicholas Berdiaev, as well as writers like Mikhail Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev, and Fedor Dostoevsky, giving a sense of the intellectual and emotional universe they inhabited. The Power of Language and Rhetoric in Russian Political History provides both students and scholars with a specific focus through which to approach Russian culture and history. This book is essential reading for students of Russian government, thought, literature and political action.
Scenarios of Power: From Peter the Great to the death of Nicholas I
The Russian imperial court, with its extravagant ceremonies and celebrations, was perhaps the most impressive theater in the world. The show, however, was no mere diversion, as Richard Wortman demonstrates in this first scholarly study of the principal myths, symbols, and rituals of Russian monarchy. Focusing on the period from the reign of Peter the Great to the death of Nicholas I, Wortman shows how the presentations and representations of the Russian ruler played a central role in the exercise of monarchical power. These presentations--from ceremonies and staged events to architectural and literary monuments--sustained an image of a supreme and transcendent ruler that helps us to understa...
Oral History Interview with Richard Wortman
Richard Wortman reviews his personal academic history, including ties with Leopold Haimson which drew him to the then-Russian Institute. Wortman describes the 1990s as a time of "efflorescence" at the Harriman Institute, especially in the field of Russian history, and discusses the internal structure of the Institute at that time. Wortman specifically references two instances of tension between groups at Harriman: between PhD students and non-PhD students, and between Political Science faculty/scholars and humanities-focused faculty/scholars. Wortman notes Harriman's influence on the rise of nationality studies and discusses his conflicted view on the place of human rights studies within the Institute.
The Development of a Russian Legal Consciousness
Until the nineteenth century, the Russian legal system was subject to an administrative hierarchy headed by the tsar, and the courts were expected to enforce, not interpret the law. Richard S. Wortman here traces the first professional class of legal experts who emerged during the reign of Nicholas I (1826 – 56) and who began to view the law as a uniquely modern and independent source of authority. Discussing how new legal institutions fit into the traditional system of tsarist rule, Wortman analyzes how conflict arose from the same intellectual processes that produced legal reform. He ultimately demonstrates how the stage was set for later events, as the autocracy and judiciary pursued contradictory—and mutually destructive—goals.
Russian Monarchy
This new volume from the author of Scenarios of Power explores the effect of the symbolic and mythical representations of the Russian imperial government on law, administrative practice, and concepts of national and imperial identities throughout centuries of monarchical rule. Richard Wortman demonstrates how the ideologies behind such representations shaped the thought patterns not only of the tsar and the imperial family but also of the Russian political and social elite. He characterizes the monarchy as an active agent in Russia's political experience, one whose dominant role was resisting change until the inevitable collapse facing all absolute monarchies.
Visual Texts, Ceremonial Texts, Texts of Exploration
"Addresses the legal and symbolic features of monarchical rule in Russia ... to show how representation and a culture of representation affected the practices and fate of the Russian monarchy. The articles ... deal with specific issues such as the development of Russian law and legal institutions, the narratives and imagery of the dynasty, and the relation of the monarchy to concepts of the Russian nation and empire. In this context, they trace the evolution of imperial and national myths, the invention of tradition in Russia, the changing roles of St. Petersburg and Moscow as symbolic capitals, the efforts to integrate nationalities into a nation state, and the principle of territorial integrity in the lexicon of rule.w"--Back cover.
