:The Petrine Revolution in Russian Culture

Abstract

This volume is the third, final, and most synthetic of the massive study of Petrine culture that James Cracraft undertook nearly two decades ago. Taken together, the works amount to an unquestionable tour de force by an outstanding historian of early modern Russia. The first two installments, The Petrine Revolution in Russian Architecture (1988) and The Petrine Revolution in Russian Imagery (1997), developed the by now familiar argument that the reign of Peter the Great constituted a massive cultural revolution in Russia, one that was broad in both conception and in reach. Peter's reforms brought Western visual models, ideas, technologies, and notions of urban space and design to what Cracraft once termed (in discussing pre-Petrine cities) the “mess” that was Moscow. This volume extends the argument to reforms in language and to institutionalized print. Rather than breaking new empirical ground, it does so largely by revisiting and closely reading well-known materials. Simultaneously, it provides a running commentary that effectively unifies the three volumes while clarifying the overarching argument in response to earlier demurrals. The narrative is devoid of polemics, private quarrels, or jargon. As ever, Cracraft is an elegant expositor whose points of view are equally accessible to specialists and general readers, the two audiences to which this book is directed.