Table of Contents

Maps The Expansion of Muscovy in the 16th and 17th Centuries The Expansion of the Russian Empire in the 18th Century Russian Expansion under Catherine the Great Russia at its Greatest Extent Acknowledgements Introduction The Russian Empire: How and Why State-Building The First Crises of Empire The Secular State of Peter the Great Assimilating Peter's Heritage The Apogee of the Secular State Social Classes, Religion and Culture in Imperial Russia The Nobility The Army The Peasantry The Orthodox Church Towns and the Missing Bourgeoisie The Birth of the Intelligentsia Literature as 'Nation-Builder' Imperial Russia under Pressure The Reforms of Alexander II Russian Socialism Russification The Revolution of 1905-7 The Duma Monarchy Conclusions Afterthoughts on the Soviet Experience Chronology Notes Index

Promotional Information

Geoffrey Hosking has written a wonderfully suggestive and innovative Russian history that deserves to be widely read. He masterfully interweaves the latest scholarship in social history with an imaginative rereading of intellectual, institutional, and political history. -- Mark von Hagen, author of Soldiers of the Proletariat Dictatorship A sweeping overview of Russian history written by a master of the subject. It is rich in details, sources, and ideas about Russian political, historical, and cultural development. It is an impressive work that will be useful to students of Russian history, culture, religion, as well as politics. -- Nicolai N. Petro, author of The Rebirth of Russian Democracy

About the Author

Geoffrey Hosking is Emeritus Professor of Russian History at University College London.

Reviews

One of the author's earlier books, The First Socialist Society, is a rare example of sound academic history made popular. This monograph, while a tour de force from a foremost practitioner of Russian history, does not meet that standard. Hosking offers an innovative reinterpretation of Russian imperial history, arguing that the concept of nation-building should replace autocracy and backwardness, the two themes most often used to interpret Russian history. The subtitle of the book is the key here: the author believes that the desire for empire hindered the Russians' ability to form a nation. Demonstrating a thorough knowledge of Western and Russian sources, he covers the main topics in imperial Russian history: the rise of the Russian state, the peasantry, imperial expansion, the church, the army, the nobility and more. A professor of Russian history at the University of London's School of Slavonic & East European Studies, Hosking imaginatively connects specific movements and general patterns to buttress his argument‘just one example is his nuanced articulation of the long-term importance of the Old Believers, those members of Russian society who resisted 17th-century religious reforms. The Old Believers, he explains, "marked the opening of a radical split in Russian consciousness, when large numbers of conservative and patriotic Russians became alienated from the imperial state." The book, however, is too dense and confusing‘half is arranged thematically, half chronologically‘for the general reader. There's plenty to chew on here‘one only wishes the author had presented it in a more digestible package. (June)

The loss of empire has left many Russians bewildered because their view of themselves as a nation had been intimately connected with their self-image as a great imperial power. It has revealed how weakly developed is the Russians' sense of national identity. Mr. Hosking attributes that weakness to imperialism overwhelming nationhood in Russia's history...The problem Mr. Hosking raises is not new, but he is the first to explore it in depth. -- Richard Pipes * New York Times Book Review *
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 everyone should read who wants to understand the origins of Russia's predicament today. -- Orlando Figes * Times *
The publication of this book... invites us to do nothing less than rethink Russian history. In a sweeping yet meticulously argued reinterpretation of the past five centuries, Hosking shows the ways in which the Russian state's policy of empire-building has impeded the creation of a Russian nation, leaving today's Russians uncertain about what being Russian actually means. It thus goes a significant step beyond the commonplace according to which Russia's current troubles stem from the lack of a democratic tradition: democracy requires a sense of self, Hosking maintains, and Russia cannot fully embrace democracy without developing a viable ethnic and civil identity. * Washington Post Book World *
Hosking's book is a >tour de force of historical argument vividly written, courageously argumentative, unafraid to take a stand on the 'accursed question' of Russian identity and destiny. -- Michael Ignatieff * Observer (Manchester, England) *
[An] impressive book...There are more resonances for today's Russia in these pages than in all the archive-spilling that has characterized so much post-Soviet publishing...It is unlikely that a clearer, more stimulating account of the Russians' extraordinary period of imperial history will be written. -- Philip Marsden * The Spectator *
[A] brilliant dual study of Russia's people and empire under the Tsars...an elegantly written, humane and rigorous work of empirical history, with considerable relevance to the problems of what, in light of the author's arguments, we should optimistically call another emergent nation. -- Michael Burleigh * Independent on Sunday *
I counsel everyone to read the latest work of Prof. Geoffrey Hosking, the man who has done the most to explain Russia to the general reader...He has produced a fascinating analysis. -- Boris Johnson * Daily Telegraph *
Hosking has a fascinating thesis, arguing persuasively that there are two Russias-->Rus' for the people and >Rossia for the empire--and that the empire has always swallowed up the people, with terrible consequences today as Russia tries to establish itself as a nation. But this book can also be read simply as a lucid and absorbing history of a great country, scrupulously presented by a scholar whose breadth of knowledge astonishes. * Best Books of 1997, Library Journal *
[A] tour de force from a foremost practitioner of Russian history...Hosking offers an innovative reinterpretation of Russian imperial history. * Publishers Weekly *
The well-regarded Hosking...has applied his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Russia's past to the question of how and why the Russians never developed a sense of nation. He argues that the Russian monarchy and aristocracy were always more interested in building an expansive empire than in promoting the belief in nationhood...Hosking has brought a powerful intellect and great erudition to this work, which is a sophisticated blend of narrative and analysis. * Library Journal *
A valuable reinterpretation of Russian history in the light of the dissolution of the Soviet empire...[Hosking's] 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...[A] thoughtful, often penetrating review of a complex and important perspective. * Kirkus Reviews *
Geoffrey Hosking has written a wonderfully suggestive and innovative Russian history that deserves to be widely read. He masterfully interweaves the latest scholarship in social history with an imaginative rereading of intellectual, institutional, and political history. -- Mark von Hagen, author of Soldiers of the Proletariat Dictatorship
A sweeping overview of Russian history written by a master of the subject. It is rich in details, sources, and ideas about Russian political, historical, and cultural development. It is an impressive work that will be useful to students of Russian history, culture, religion, as well as politics. -- Nicolai N. Petro, author of The Rebirth of Russian Democracy

Although at first blush, Hosking's book may seem like just another surey of Russian history, it is in fact much more. The well-regarded Hosking (deputy director, Univ. of London's School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies) has applied his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Russia's past to the question of how and why the Russians never developed a sense of nation. He argues that the Russian monarchy and aristocracy were always more interested in building an expansive empire than in promoting the belief in nationhood, something understood by the powerless peasantry. The expensive and inefficient bureaucracy that emerged over the centuries weighed against any possibility of community, and in the end this tottering edifice was unable to withstand the cataclysm of World War I. Hosking has brought a powerful intellect and great erudition to this work, which is a sophisticated blend of narrative and analysis. Essential for any library that collects material in Russian and European history.‘Edward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames