New Perspectives in Modern Russian History : Selected Papers From the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990

This book contains a selection of papers from the fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies. Although a section of the Congress was devoted to the period 1801 to 1917, the bulk of the papers presented were concerned with the crisis of the ancien regime in the 1890s and 1900s. The essays in the volume are accordingly devoted mainly to the history of tsarist Russia between 1881 and 1917. The selection has been based upon two criteria. Some essays illuminate aspects of the period neglected by historians, such as the evolution of military doctrine in the Imperial army under the impact of technological change or the relationship between the Orthodox church and the state as reflected in canon law. Others seek to make available new interpretations by Western scholars of important issues. Judith Pallot and David A. J. Macey, for example, offer very different assessments of the chances of success of Stolypin's agrarian reforms. David McLaren Macdonald reveals how the Council of Ministers came to exercise influence over foreign policy, while Shmuel Galai argues that the Kadets did become a mass party in 1905-6. Robert B. McKean exposes the inconsistencies and incoherence of official labor policy-making. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-12 Prince Alexander Gorchakov: The Politics of Recovery....Pages 13-24 Giers and the Policy of Moderation....Pages 25-42 Technology versus the Moral Element: Emerging Views in the Russian Officer Corps, 1870–1904....Pages 43-64 Imperial Russia’s Canonists and the Issue of Church and State....Pages 65-79 The Kadet Quest for the Masses....Pages 80-98 Russian Liberalism — Utopia or Realism? The Individual and the Citizen in the Political Thought of Milyukov....Pages 99-116 Did the Stolypin Land Reform Destroy the Peasant Commune?....Pages 117-132 Government Actions and Peasant Reactions During the Stolypin Reforms....Pages 133-173 A. P. Izvol′skii and Russian Foreign Policy Under ‘United Government’, 1906–10....Pages 174-202 Russian Foreign Policy, Economic Interests and the Straits Question, 1905–14....Pages 203-221 The Bureaucracy and the Labour Problem, June 1907–February 1917....Pages 222-249 Russian Nationalism and Tsarist Nationalities Policies in Semi-Constitutional Russia, 1905–1914....Pages 250-277 Back Matter....Pages 279-287 Containing a selection of papers from the Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, this book deals with the crisis of the ancien regime in the 1890s and 1990s. The essays in this volume are accordingly devoted mainly to the history of tsarist Russia between 1881 and 1917 In editing any collection of essays, the most difficult task facing the editors is the choice of materials for inclusion.