Readings in Russian Civilization Volume I: Russia before Peter the Great, 900-1700

by Thomas Riha (Editor)

"This new and enlarged version of Readings in Russian Civilization is the result of fairly extensive revisions. There are now 72 instead of 64 items; 20 of the selections are new. The first volume has undergone the least change with 3 new items, of which 2 appear in English for the first time. In the second volume there are 6 new items; all of them appear in English for the first time. The third volume has undergone the greatest revision, with 11 new items, of which 6 are newly translated from the Russian. It is the editor's hope that items left out in the new edition will not be sorely missed, and that the new selections will turn out to be useful and illuminating. The aim, throughout, has been to cover areas of knowledge and periods which had been neglected in the first edition, and to include topics which are important in the study of the Russian past and present.

"The bibliographical headnotes have been enlarged, with the result that there are now approximately twice as many entries as in the old edition. New citations include not only works which have appeared since 1963, but also older books and articles which have come to the editor's attention."—From the Editor's Preface

". . . a judicious combination of seminal works and more recent commentaries that achieves the editor's purpose of stimulating curiosity and developing a point of view."—C. Bickford O'Brien, The Russian Review

"These three volumes cover quite well the main periods of Russian civilization. The choice of the articles and other material is made by a competent and unbiased scholar."—Ivan A. Lopatin, Professor of Asian and Slavic Studies, University of Southern California

Genres: History, Russian History, Russia

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read through this anthology fairly quickly, and certainly most of the collected works in it require another reading, but I can say that I feel overall it's a first-class effort for the material it covers. This book is one of three in a series covering the history of Russia, with this one covering up to Peter the Great while the second volume considers Russia under the tsars and the third considers Soviet Russia. Of the three, this one I feel is the strongest: the Soviet volume doesn't cover later Soviet era materials very well while the second volume simply doesn't include a comprehensive enough selection of essays, given that it is concerned with Russia's golden age of literary and political development. Also, it would be nice for there to be a volume dedicated to post-Soviet Russia and one for the Kievan Rus prior to what's covered in the present book.

That all said, this is a strong anthology that should serve well the student of Russian history—especially if he/she cannot read Russian. For those who can, there are additional resources I'd suggest but even then, this is one of the best places to start because of the diversity of essays collected. In addition, the period covered of early Russian history is probably the one most neglected in general history books of Russia, so for the person interested in Russia, a book like this is very useful.

[Cecelia]

interesting, even though I read it for a class