The Petrine Revolution in Russian Culture by James s> Cracraft (review)

Abstract

760 SEER, 83, 4, 2005 which will be of interestto readersof the Slavonic Review, Leighton'sis the most valuable. The studies of freemasonry in Hungary and the late Ottoman Empire offer useful but relatively short and superficialintroductions to the historyof freemasonryin these areas. Of the new material,two papersstandhead and shouldersabove the others: David Stevenson's masterly and thought-provoking reappraisal of James Anderson, the Presbyterian clergyman who compiled the first Book of Constitutions of the London Grand Lodge; and a gem of an essay by Rebecca Coombes on the Libraryand Museum of Freemasonryin London, which not only gives a succinct guide to these collections, but also provides fascinating case studies in masonic bibliography. These, together with the solidly researchedand clear pieces by Lisa Kahler on early Scottish lodges,Jennifer Macleod on music and freemasonry in eighteenth-century Edinburgh, Richard Rutyna on Virginia freemasons, and Kathleen Kutolowski on the Anti-Masonic party in the United States, mean that the book will become a standard reference, but all users will quickly conclude that it is a bloated volume, which would have been twice as good if half the size. The book is sadly marred by slipshod copy editing and proof reading, and lacks an adequate index, essential in a book of this size. The poor editorial and production standards of the book are summed up by the editors' random insertion of badly pixellated black and white illustrationswhose relevance to the text is mostlynot evident. Centrefor Research intoFreemasonry ANDREW PRESCOTT Humanities Research Institute, University ofSheffield Cracraft,James. 7The Petrine Revolution inRussianCulture. The BelknapPressof Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and London, 2004. xii + 560 pp. Illustrations. Figures. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index. J32-95. THIsbook is the culmination of an ambitious, one might say heroic project, which began with 7hePetrine Revolution in RussianArchitecture (Chicago, IL, I988) and T7he Petrine Revolution inRussian Imagegy (Chicago, IL, I997). (See my reviews in Russian Review, 49, I990, P. 336, and SEER, 77, I999, I, P. I71.) This finalvolume bearswhat might have servedas the overarchingtitle of the trilogy,but in factits subjectis 'verbalculture'.Findingthe rightwordfornew things and renaming old ones was a fundamental aspect of 'modernization', as Peter the Great (an indifferent linguist) appreciated. A decree of 26 November I7i8 introducingnewformsof socialgatheringexplained:'Assemblei is a Frenchword, which cannot be expressedin Russianin one word.' Similar problems arose constantly, from naming parts of ships to designating new court ranks. James Cracraft'sstudyprovidesa wealth of such examples. Beginningwith a considerationof generaltheoriesof 'culturalrevolution',modernizationand related themes and some backgroundto the history of the Russian language before Peter'sreign, the author then includes four chapters devoted respectively to naval affairs,military modernization, bureaucracy, and science and REVIEWS 76I literature(the last two perhaps slightly awkwardbedfellows). In each he sets out the European background, which he underpins by reference to key theoriesand studies,thusembedding Peterin thewiderEuropeancontext. He then outlinesthe keyfeaturesof the establishmentof the Russiannavy, reform of the army and so on, before focusing on major printed works, such as the NavalStatueof I720, the MilitaryStatueof 17I6 and the General Regulation of I 720, translated books on geometry, astronomy, geography and other practical topics, and shorter texts, including government decrees, analysing criticalpassagesand highlightingnew vocabulary.Each of these chaptersalso examines the related area of educational reform, for example, the establishment of naval and militaryschools and the Academy of Sciences. Chaptersix, on the 'language question', generalizes on the basis of the lexical evidence presented earlier, considering, among other things, publishing and printing, the invention of the modern Russian 'Civic' alphabet in I708- io, and dictionaries and grammars. Chapter seven offers a brief conclusion to the whole trilogy,drawingparallelsbetween changesin architecture,imageryand verbal culture and reiterating the author's belief that Peter created a 'revolution' in Russian life, albeit a 'top-down "revolution by decree", narrowlyelitistat first'(p. 309). (A usefulsummaryaimed at studentsand the general reader can be found in ProfessorCracraft's TheRevolution ofPeterthe Great, Cambridge,MA, 2003.) That the Russian literary language changed during Peter's reign is not a new discovery. There have been a number of specialized studies of 'Petrine language', mostly in Russian and German, but nothing really accessible to historians as opposed to linguists. No previous author has attempted to set Petrine verbal culture in...