Monthly Archives: February 2017

Alexander’s 1861 Manifesto (Cracraft 1994, 341) bestows on the serfs “the full rights of free rural inhabitants.” What are these rights? They do not seem to be fully specified in the Manifesto. Alexander outlines some principles and a general direction to be … Continue reading →

So far, we have read texts providing for a governmental “revolution” written by emperors themselves. The texts we have read for Monday’s class are thus unique in that they were written by members of a “military intelligentsia” who lacked the … Continue reading →

The new perspective on the political thinkers of the Enlightenment that is gained when looking from Catherine the Great and a Russian direction is exciting. These philosophes’ writing had, if any, an elusive effect on the European monarchies under which … Continue reading →