Moskoviia. Ocherki istorii Moskovskogo gosudarstva vtoroi poloviny XV-kontsa XVII veka by D. Svak False Tsars by Gyula s> Szv�k Peter Daniel (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 749 flag of their own ruler. Some prospered and rose; most died within a year of theirrecruitment.There was, undoubtedly,a much higherdegreeof consensus and willingness amongst the Swedish nobility to heed Gustav Adolf's exhortations to let the 'high fame and renowned exploits' of their valorous ancestorsinspire them than there was amongst the Danes, who were content to sit on their estates and let their wealthy monarch pursue his ambitions in Lower Saxony. The ability of the peasantry of Sweden and Finland to bear without significantprotest the constant demands of the state for manpower is also quite remarkable.But is Sweden's poverty sufficientexplanation for the 'imperial experience', to employ Michael Roberts' phrase? Frost is right to challenge the assumptions of earlier generations of scholars, but can we so easily overlook the role of the Dutch as purchasersof Swedish metals and as entrepreneursin Sweden itself, or the articulated aspirationsof the Swedish government, especially its guiding spirit, Axel Oxenstierna, who did most certainlyhave a vision of what Sweden should striveto achieve?The statesof northernEuropewere surelyasawareofwhatone mighttermthe 'commercial revolution', as they were of the militaryrevolution;it would be unreasonable to expect extensive analysis of the former in a book primarily dedicated to teasing out the implications of the latter for northern Europe, but there is an absence of such considerationswhich does make the explanation of Sweden's 'age of greatness' rather non-causal and as such, unsatisfactory.This is my one major reservation, but there is much to be praised in this book, which drawsupon an impressiverange of sourcesin a wide range of languages. The aficionado of battles and campaigns is well catered for, with good, clear descriptions, solid analysis and useful maps. There is a great amount of information on the way in which the Commonwealth actuallyfunctioned; in hisbooks and articles,Robert Frosthas done much to reshapeourperceptions of that much-maligned early modern European 'greatpower'. Above all, this is a powerfully-arguedcontribution to the historiographyon the evolution of the military state, which brushes away many of the hoary myths and false assumptions. By setting Poland-Lithuaniasquarelywithin the wider context of the northernwars, Robert Frosthas opened up new perspectives,not only forthe specialiston earlymodern historyin general,but alsoforthose working on what contemporaries would have known as the septentrional regions of Europe.His worktrulysetsan impressivestandard. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies DAVID KIRBY University College London Svak,D. Moskoviia. Ocherki istorii Moskovskogo gosudarstva vtoroi poloviny XV- kontsa XVII veka.InstitutrossiiskoiistoriiRAN, Moscow, 2000. 148pp. Bibliography .Name index. Priceunknown. Szvak, Gyula. False Tsars. Translated by Peter Daniel. Social Sciences Monographs. Center for Hungarian Studies, Wayne, NJ, and Columbia University Press,New York,2000. X+ i8i pp. Notes. Map. Index. Price unknown. HUNGARIAN is not the most accessible of languages, so specialistsin Russian history will welcome the appearance of these two works by ProfessorGyula 750 SEER, 79, 4, 200I Szvak, Director of the Centre for Russian Studies at the University of Budapest, in languages which are more familiarto them. Although Moskovija has a print-runof only 250 copies, Szv.akexplains in his Introductionthat it is intended for teaching purposes at universitylevel. It is certainlya usefulwork of synthesis:the Bibliography lists works mostly in Russian and Hungarian, with a handfulof English-languagepublications(largelydatingfromthe 1970s and 8os). The book is divided into two parts:the firstis devoted to the 'long' sixteenthcentury(I462-I613); the second,to the 'rebellious'seventeenth (I613-82). These parts are organized thematically rather than chronologically :the firstpartbegins with a section on 'Economy and society', followed by discussions of 'State and politics' and of 'Church and culture'; the second contains sections on 'The beginning of consolidation by the Romanovs, 'Income and expenditure', 'External and internal wars', 'The great Russian schism', 'The crisisof traditionalculture', and finally 'The legacy of Peter I'. In the Introduction, the author expresses his desire not only to move away fromthe dominant focuson the politicalhistoryof theperiod, but also to place Russian history more firmly in its international context. In this respect, he claims that Russia's development was consistent with that of Europe rather than Asia, although Russia's was a backwardversion of Western feudalism. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, the archaic early-feudaltype of society had given way...