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The Time of Troubles: A Historical Study of the Internal Crisis and Social Struggle in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Muscovy
Sergei Feodorovich Platonov's Time of Troubles is a classic study of the years 1598-1613, a turbulent and decisive period in Russian history. Available for the first time in English, this work will be a valuable tool for students of the medieval as well as modern periods.
Platonov, himself a tragic victim of the regimentation imposed on Soviet cultural life in the 1920s, was born in 1860 and attained immense public and professional recognition in Russia as a leading historian. In his work he synthesized, to a high degree, two major traditions of Russian historiography: the St. Petersburg "school," which emphasized the collection and rigorous use of primary sources, and the Moscow "school" with its socioeconomic and geopolitical approaches. Time of Troubles represents the finished product of a lifetime spent in research, writing, and teaching. In broad terms it treats nearly a century and a half of Russian history (1500-1648); in detail it scrutinizes developments in the Muscovite State from 1598 to 1613. Some of the major issues covered in this volume are: the growing consolidation of Muscovite absolutism and the formation of a national state; the expansion of Muscovy to the west and southeast; the demise of the boyar class and the rise of the service-gentry; the emergence of serfdom as the social basis of Muscovite society; the cataclysmic end of one dynasty, the House of Rurik, and the beginnings of another, the House of Romanov. For Platonov—who devoted most of his career as a scholar to the study of these dramatic years—the epoch marked nothing less than the great divide between medieval Muscovy and modern Russia, witnessing the downfall of an essentially patrimonial regime and its replacement, after fierce struggles, by a more modern state founded on a new constellation of social groups.
Platonov, himself a tragic victim of the regimentation imposed on Soviet cultural life in the 1920s, was born in 1860 and attained immense public and professional recognition in Russia as a leading historian. In his work he synthesized, to a high degree, two major traditions of Russian historiography: the St. Petersburg "school," which emphasized the collection and rigorous use of primary sources, and the Moscow "school" with its socioeconomic and geopolitical approaches. Time of Troubles represents the finished product of a lifetime spent in research, writing, and teaching. In broad terms it treats nearly a century and a half of Russian history (1500-1648); in detail it scrutinizes developments in the Muscovite State from 1598 to 1613. Some of the major issues covered in this volume are: the growing consolidation of Muscovite absolutism and the formation of a national state; the expansion of Muscovy to the west and southeast; the demise of the boyar class and the rise of the service-gentry; the emergence of serfdom as the social basis of Muscovite society; the cataclysmic end of one dynasty, the House of Rurik, and the beginnings of another, the House of Romanov. For Platonov—who devoted most of his career as a scholar to the study of these dramatic years—the epoch marked nothing less than the great divide between medieval Muscovy and modern Russia, witnessing the downfall of an essentially patrimonial regime and its replacement, after fierce struggles, by a more modern state founded on a new constellation of social groups.
216 pages, Paperback
Published April 10, 1970
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About the author
Сергей Фёдорович Платонов
10 booksПлатонов Сергей Федорович (1860, Чернигов - 1933, Самара) - историк. Род. в семье типографского служащего. Окончив Петербург, гимназию, Платонов, мечтавший о лит. деятельности, поступил на историко-филологический ф-г Петербург, ун-та. Под влиянием историков К.Н. Бестужева-Рюмина, В.О. Ключевского, А.Д. Градовского увлекся историей. В 1882 после окончания университета был оставлен для подготовки к профессорскому званию. Талант и исключительная работоспособность позволили Платонов написать диссертацию "Древнерусские сказания и повести о Смутном времени XVII в. как исторический источник", высоко оцененную В.О. Ключевским и удостоенную Уваровской премии Академии наук. В 1890 Платонов стал профессором рус. истории Петербург. ун-та. Его докторской диссертацией стала кн. "Очерки по истории смуты в Московском государстве XVI - XVII вв.", к-рую Платонов считал "высшим научным достижением всей жизни", определившим его "место в среде деятелей русской историографии". Он много потрудился над изданием источников нач. XVII в. ("Русская историческая библиотека". СПб., 1891. Т. 13) - работой, сохранившей до сих пор свое значение. Умевший кратко, ясно, интересно излагать материал, Платонов стал одним из виднейших профессоров нач. XX в. Не принимая либерализма В.О. Ключевского (хотя исторические взгляды Платонов не отличались существенно от его взглядов), консервативного монархизма Д.И. Иловайского и марксизма М.Н. Покровского, Платонов считал, что "нет нужды вносить в историографию какие бы то ни было точки зрения; субъективная идея не есть идея научная". В 1895 - 1902 был приглашен преподавателем истории к вел. князьям. В 1903, талантливый администратор и преподаватель, Платонов возглавил Женский педагогический ин-т. В 1908 стал членом-корр. Академии наук. Написанный им "Учебник русской истории для средней школы" (СПб., 1909 - 1910) стал одним из лучших дореволюционных учебников, переиздание к-рого прервали события окт. 1917. К Октябрьской рев. отнесся отрицательно, считая большевистскую программу "искусственной и утопичной", нона сотрудничество с большевиками согласился, полагая, что при любой власти он должен служить своему народу. Участвовал в спасении архивов и библиотек в Петрограде, возглавлял Археографическую комиссию, Археологический ин-т, Пушкинский Дом, Библиотеку Академии наук и др. В 1920 избран академиком. В 1930 был арестован по сфабрикованному ОГПУ "Академическому делу" историков (С.В. Бахрушин, Е.В. Тарле и др.). Так началась легенда о П. как представителе официально-охранительного направления историографии. Был сослан в Самару и умер в больнице от сердечной недостаточности.
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October 20, 2019
Decent introduction to a very interesting but also quite unknown period in Russian history. There is some novelty in reading a book on the subject by a tsarist Russian historian, the translation is absolutely readable, and the work is organised very well with frequent chapters and sub-chapters, clear titles and good summaries. But there are also several drawbacks.
For one the book is a hundred years old, and certainly there are aspects of it that are outdated. Some of the authors depictions of Ivan the Terrible and the Oprichnina seemed to contradict what I recently read in the work by Madariaga, and other topics from the latter that I imagine would be relevant were not mentioned. In consequence it clouds the rest of the narrative as you don't know to what degree you can trust the conclusions of the author. This follows into the second big negative. Even when the author makes direct quotations, which happens quite frequently, there are no indication of sources.
There's not a single source or reference in the book, as such you can't treat this as anything other than pop-his. According to the introduction by the author this was supposed to be just that, a condensed pop-his account of his major works on the period. I would have preferred to read the proper historical works. The translator has done a good job building a bibliography of english sources for the period, but I imagine that too has become quite outdated in the last 40 years.
For one the book is a hundred years old, and certainly there are aspects of it that are outdated. Some of the authors depictions of Ivan the Terrible and the Oprichnina seemed to contradict what I recently read in the work by Madariaga, and other topics from the latter that I imagine would be relevant were not mentioned. In consequence it clouds the rest of the narrative as you don't know to what degree you can trust the conclusions of the author. This follows into the second big negative. Even when the author makes direct quotations, which happens quite frequently, there are no indication of sources.
There's not a single source or reference in the book, as such you can't treat this as anything other than pop-his. According to the introduction by the author this was supposed to be just that, a condensed pop-his account of his major works on the period. I would have preferred to read the proper historical works. The translator has done a good job building a bibliography of english sources for the period, but I imagine that too has become quite outdated in the last 40 years.
Displaying 1 of 1 review