The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume 2, Imperial Russia, 1689–1917

book recd TH22 apr/2021.

The second volume of The Cambridge History of Russia offers another incredible collection of scholarship, and despite editor Dominic Lieven's assertions that "only a few martyrs" will read the book cover to cover, I did and with relish. Leiven has done an excellent job in arranging the thematic organization of a stupendous text in a way that provides both contextual continuity as well as a diversity of subjects and approaches.As I also read the first volume "in one sitting" and immediately began the second, I did find the transition between the volumes a little jarring. The first volume, The Cambridge History of Russia, Volume 1, traces their history from about the ninth century up to the beginning of Peter I's ("The Great") rule in 1682. The second volume stretches from Peter The Great to the fall of the tsarist empire in 1917. However, one distinctly feels that the first volume ends with Peter's rule and the second begins after his rule. As such, one cannot help but feel the critical period of The Great Reforms under Peter is neglected. This is likely attributable to the fact there is no series editor, and each volume has been largely left to its individual editors to treat as a separate work constrained only by the time frame. Each editor explains how they have sought to organize the text and considerations of topics, and this reinforces this idea.The first section, Empire, also has a bit of a jarring, choppy feeling between articles (all by individual scholars, experts in the subject they address). However, this soon smooths out and one feels by the second section, "Culture, Ideas and Identities" that the volume has really come together in something cohesive and more than one might expect given its roughly chronological but certainly thematic arrangement.Like the other volumes of this set, the second is an exquisite and fascinating collection of scholarship. The section on Non-Russian Nationalities, particularly the article by Bobrovnikov, "Islam in the Russian Empire," were excellent for their erudite scholarship. And if scholarly articles can be gripping then Daly's "Police and revolutionaries" is certainly an example. In fact, only Baberowski's article, "Law, the judicial system and the legal profession" was in any way lacking in my mind, and not for any lack of excellence in Baberowski's scholarship but rather for the pedantic tone of the article with remarks such as "The peasants, of course, had no idea what the concept of separation of powers meant" (p.355). The typical reader probably would not even notice such remarks.This text will not disappoint those who share my interest and love of these vast and complex peoples, and despite the editor's concern that "only the occasional martyr [will] read this book from cover to cover" I am sure I am not the only one, and I am sure others who do as well will feel not a sense of martyrdom but of delight, and certainly thankful to Lieven's remarkable work in taking so many disparate threads and weaving them into a cohesive scholarly yarn.Of course, these volumes are quite pricy--the entire set is over $600 at the time of writing this, and this single volume is available used for $99 at the time of writing. This means they are out of the price range for most individuals who would not be using institutional money to purchase them. As a library acquisition, though, even for an institution that might not support Slavic/Russian studies, these are excellent resources to have. The bibliographies, which focus on Anglophone scholarship, realizing that its audience may not be able to read academic Russian texts, is extensive--collectively, it runs to several hundred pages across all three volumes. As a starting point for research or scholarship, I can think of no better place than this collection of texts.

The second volume of the Cambridge History of Russia features some really superb scholarship and a great cross-section of the current academic consensus on the Imperial period of Russian history. The problem is that it fundamentally fails in its mission statement: Rather than providing an authoritative general history, it is merely a collection of topical essays that, crucially, presuppose that you already know Russian history. Countless names and events are referenced by authors discussing their various topics which are never explained and the book simply fails to communicate the core structure of Russian history from which all of its contents hang.If you are looking for a true history of Russia, you are better off looking elsewhere (Restless Empire: A Historical Atlas of Russia is quite good for this; Russian History: A Very Short Introduction is passable) and then pursuing this volume of the Cambridge History only if you're interested in advanced, in-depth look at certain aspects of the time period.Volume 2's failure in this regard, it should be noted, is notable in comparison to Volume 1, which DID succeed in providing both the basic foundation of pre-Imperial Russian history AND an in-depth exploration of focused topics.