LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Imperial Russia
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Imperial Russia was at the height of its power and influence in the nineteenth century, and seemed set to dominate Europe after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. However this threat came to nothing. Despite the efforts of successive Tsars, the country remained backward and bureaucratic. When change at last occurred, it was through the work of the revolutionaries during the 1917 Revolution.
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Arts in Imperial Russia, Richard Stites explores the vast panorama of Russian cultural life before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. The artistic worlds of metropolitan and provincial Russia are vividly portrayed, and the manifold dimensions of cultural production and consumption are placed within their social and political contexts with consummate skill. Immensely readable and based on complete command of the published and unpublished sources, this book is quite simply a work of breathtaking scholarship which sparkles on every page with insight and erudition. Readers will stand in awe at its formidable scope and compelling narrative, and it will quickly establish itself as the definitive study of pre-emancipation Russian culture. It is yet another monumental achievement from a master historian of Russia."—Murray Frame, University of Dundee
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The standard depiction of the Orthodox Church in the historiography of Imperial Russia portrayed a moribund institution, totally subordinated to the state and serving to uphold the tsarist political and social order. According to this interpretation, Orthodoxy preached to the masses a doctrine of resignation and acceptance of one’s lot; its focus was completely otherworldly and concerned especially with ritual. Peter the Great’s reforms reputedly eliminated any independence the Church retained and incorporated it into the state bureaucracy. The Church is portrayed as either wholly indifferent to social concerns, or worse still, as an instrument of repression and exploitation.
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- The Order of St. Anne, which ranked just below the order of St. Vladimir in the Imperial Russian hierarchy, was originally an award from Schleswig-Holstien, named by the Duke of Holstein after his wife, Anne Petrovna (Peter the Great's daughter). It became a Russian award in 1742, when the prince of Schleswig-Holstein ascended the Russian throne as Czar Peter III. It came in four classes. The top three classes could be awarded with swords for gallantry in action or military merit in times of war.
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The reform era in Russia (1855–1881) witnessed the emancipation of the serfs, economic and social change, the reform of all imperial institutions, and the growth of national identity among Russians and the Empire’s expanding Jewish population. Consequently, the ‘Jewish Question’ became one of most hotly debated topics in Russia. Attitudes toward the Jews which evolved during this period persisted up to the Revolution and beyond. This book, based on exhaustive archival research of materials published during the period, studies the interplay of public opinion and official policy. The author examines the attitudes of all sectors of Russian educated society towards the Jews. He ... explores how a new group, the Russian Jewish intelligentsia, sought to define a modern Jewish identity in the midst of a multi-ethnic Empire.
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Russian regalia used prior to the Great Imperial Crown. The crown is styled after the Monomakh Cap, and was made for Tsar Michael Fyodorovich by Kremlin masters in 1627. The orb and sceptre are of Western-European origin and may have been given to Tsar Boris Godunov in 1604.
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