scholarly journals Making Sense of 1917: Towards a Global History of the Russian Revolution

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 610-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Rendle
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Global History ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Paris Commune ◽  
Global Impact ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
History Of ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
The Revolution

It is clear that the global impact of the Russian Revolution over the last century has been immense. What is less clear, however, is the global impactonthe revolution. Historians have appreciated that contemporaries made immediate comparisons with previous revolutions, especially the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, but considerations of broader global influences on the revolution have been rare. This article explores how historians can study these global influences, exploring the circulation of ideas and their influence on people and policies. Whilst not denying the continuing primacy of traditional “internal” factors in explaining the nature and process of the revolution, the article argues that globalizing 1917, as contemporaries did, helps historians to better understand the widespread belief in progress that fueled developments as people sought to create a new country, and to appreciate how people tried to make sense of the tumultuous events of revolution.

scholarly journals The French Revolution and the New Spatial Format for Empire

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-528
Author(s):  
Megan Maruschke
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global History ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

Abstract Both global history and the new imperial history identify an emerging convergence of spatial formats, practices, and knowledge for organizing societies during the nineteenth century, though each emphasizes different competitive formats: the territorializing nation-state and the enduring empire. Rather than contrasting empire and nation-state, this article takes their combination seriously through the example of the respatialization of the French Empire during the Revolution and the reorganization of domestic territory into departments. The history of departmentalization underscores the emerging and changing interrelationships between nation and empire. The territorialization of metropolitan France, which developed out of imperial and transregional exchanges, was emblematic of the new type of empire that became a prevailing model for societal organization in the nineteenth century: the nation-state with imperial extensions. L'histoire globale et la nouvelle histoire impériale ont toutes deux signalé l’émergence d'une convergence des formats spatiaux, des pratiques et des savoirs tout au long du dix-neuvième siècle, mais chacun de ces deux champs de recherche insiste sur des formats distincts et rivaux pour organiser les sociétés : l'Etat-nation en voie de territorialisation, d'une part, et l'empire qui perdure, d'autre part. En effet, plutôt que d'opposer l'empire à l'Etat-nation, cet article prend au sérieux leur conjonction en examinant à nouveaux frais la respatialisation de l'empire français pendant la Révolution et la réorganisation du territoire national en départements. L'histoire de la départementalisation met ainsi en évidence l’émergence et le développement des relations mutuelles entre nation et empire. La territorialisation de la France métropolitaine, qui se développa à la faveur d’échanges impériaux et transrégionaux, fut caractéristique du nouveau type d'empire qui devint un modèle dominant d'organisation des sociétés au dix-neuvième siècle : celui de l'Etat-nation pourvu de prolongements impériaux.

‘The greatest irregular’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Scurr
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Thomas Carlyle ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dramatic Narrative ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

Thomas Carlyle claimed that his history of the French Revolution was ‘a wild savage book, itself a kind of French Revolution …’. This chapter considers his stylistic approaches to creating the illusion of immediacy: his presentation of seemingly unmediated fact through the transformation of memoir and other kinds of historical record into a compelling dramatic narrative. Closely examining the ways in which he worked biographical anecdote into the fabric of his text raises questions about Carlyle’s wider historical purposes. Pressing the question of what it means to think through style, or to distinguish expressive emotive writing from abstract understanding, is an opportunity to reconsider Carlyle’s relation to his predecessors and contemporaries writing on the Revolution in English.

Sovereignty, Politics, and Reason in the Post-Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
James Livesey
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
International Order ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter focuses on the French Revolution as one of the most important moments in the entangled history of local cosmopolitanisms. Such ideas as rights, property, and democracy were consciously articulated during the Revolution as universals with cosmopolitan spheres of application, and those ideas had profound global consequences over the following two centuries. Alongside this impact on states and legal structures, the Revolution also had direct effects in every community in France and touched communities outside the hexagon, from India to Ireland. The Revolution transformed the most general contexts, putting the nation-state rather than empire as the organizing principle at the heart of the international order, but it also put the most intimate experiences, such as family and emotion, under new light. The drama of the Revolution exemplified the power of ideas and the ambition to create a rational political order.

scholarly journals Dreams of the Russian Revolution in the Utopias of Alexander Chayanov and Andrei Platonov

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-290
Author(s):  
Alexander Nikulin
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

The Russian Revolution is the central theme of both A. Chayanov’s novel The Journey of My Brother Alexei to the Land of Peasant Utopia and A. Platonov’s novel Chevengur. The author of this article compares the chronicles and images of the Revolution in the biographies of Chayanov and Platonov as well as the main characters, genres, plots, and structures of the two utopian novels, and questions the very understanding of the history of the Russian Revolution and the possible alternatives of its development. The article focuses not only on the social-economic structure of utopian Moscow and Chevengur but also on the ethical-aesthetic foundations of both utopias. The author argues that the two utopias reconstruct, describe, and criticize the Revolution from different perspectives and positions. In general, Chayanov adheres to a relativistic and pluralistic perception of the Revolution and history, while Platonov, on the contrary, absolutizes the end of humankind history with the eschatological advent of Communism. In Chayanov‘s utopia, the Russian Revolution is presented as a viable alternative to the humanistic-progressive ideals of the metropolitan elites with the moderate populist-socialist ideas of the February Revolution. In Platonov’s utopia, the Revolution is presented as an alternative to the eschatological-ecological transformation of the world by provincial rebels inspired by the October Revolution. Thus, Chayanov’s liberal-cooperative utopia and Platonov’s anarchist-communist utopia contain both an apologia and a criticism of the Russian Revolution in the insights of its past and future victories and defeats, and opens new horizons for alternative interpretations of the Russian Revolution.

scholarly journals Historical explanation, emotives, and emotional suffering

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-152
Author(s):  
Ljiljana Radenovic
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
French Society ◽  
Emotional Suffering ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times ◽  
Objectively Measured ◽  
The Revolution

One of the main goals of the book ?The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions ? by William Reddy (Reddy, 2001) is to provide an explanation of the events that led to the French Revolution and the political regimes that followed the First Republic. What makes Reddy?s approach unique is that, unlike standard political, social, economic and similar approaches, it emphasizes the role that emotions and emotional suffering have in the change of political regimes. For this purpose Reddy introduces the concept of emotives. According to him, we use emotives to express and change the emotions we feel. By expressing and changing emotions, we reconsider the values we endorse, and in the times of crisis, we sometimes embrace new ones. In this way, emotives play important role not only in the emotional regulation but also in the formation of our identity. Reddy argues that in the strict emotional regimes in which the use of emotives is restricted individuals experience emotional suffering. Such suffering is not relative to culture and can be objectively measured. Thus, for Reddy some political regimes are better than others. Within this theoretical framework Reddy describes the emotional regime of the French society that preceded the revolution as strict. According to him, emotional suffering that was caused by such regime played substantial role in bringing about the revolution. In this paper I will argue that the emotional regime of the 18th century France was not as strict as Reddy argues. What was strict were the rules for how to behave not for the emotional expressions, i.e. for the use of emotives. Thus, his analysis of the emotional pre-revolutionary regime is not without weakness. I will conclude with some problems that Reddy?s analysis of the acute emotional suffering characteristic of the revolutionary period faces.

scholarly journals Introduction: a global history of the Irish Revolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (165) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Enda Delaney ◽  
Fearghal McGarry
Keyword(s):  
Global History ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Irish Nationalism ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Irish Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

AbstractHow might the history of Ireland's revolution be reassessed if viewed within a transnational, comparative or global framework? Drawing attention to recent writing on the subject, this introduction considers the conceptual and historiographical issues at stake in reframing the history of the Irish Revolution, as well as considering potential limitations to these approaches. We assess what topics in particular lend themselves to a fresh perspective focusing on Irish nationalism, while also indicating areas where there is considerable scope for new lines of inquiry. In this era of intensive commemoration of the events that unfolded between 1912 and 1923, this special issue serves to remind us that the history of the revolution should not be confined to the island of Ireland. We argue that thinking transnationally and comparatively can promote a more inclusive and diverse global history of Irish Revolution.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
Public Instruction ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
The Revolution

The conclusion discusses how re-examining the ‘education question’ in Ancien Régime and Revolutionary France offers new insight to the cultural dynamics at work in the political upheavals of late-eighteenth century France. It argues that recognizing the practical nature of many of the debates over education – even into the radical period of the Revolution – helps us to situate revolutionary politics within its historical moment and to better understand how participatory and representative politics were pursued after 1789. The conclusion situates the pursuit of both public instruction and representative government within the broader legacy of the Revolution, a legacy that has shaped modern political culture in lasting and fundamental ways. It also argues that approaching the political and cultural history of revolutionary France through the interplay of ideas about education and practical efforts to establish new institutions (political and pedagogical alike) suggests new ways to think about the relationship between the Enlightenment and the French Revolution and about the legacy of the Revolution for the theory and practice of democratic politics ever since.

NATIONAL POLISH SCHOOL AND RUSSIAN BUREAUCRACY, 1905–1907

2021 ◽  
pp. 12-21
Author(s):  
Alexandra Yu. Bakhturina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Polish School ◽  
Provincial Administration ◽  
Council Of Ministers ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Revolution

The history of the movement for a national Polish school in 1905–1907 was for a long time a part of research on the history of the first Russian revolution; the “school strike” in the Kingdom of Poland was studied separately, but the position of the top Russian bureaucracy on that issue was not considered in detail. The article considers an evolution in the positions of the top Russian bureaucracy on the issue of teaching in Polish in the schools of the Kingdom of Poland during the first Russian revolution. For the first time, the differences between the positions of official Petersburg and the provincial administration of the Kingdom of Poland are shown. The provincial administration was more interested in achieving stability in the province by liberal methods and was ready to make concessions when the members of the Council of Ministers and Nicholas II initially held an ambiguous stance. Based on the analysis of the interdepartmental correspondence, part of which is introduced in the scientific circulation for the first time, it is concluded that hesitation of the tsarist government in resolving the issue of the national Polish school did not contribute to the stabilization of the situation in the region during the revolution, and the winning liberal course did not have the anticipated effect.

Silent War and Bitter Peace: The Revolution of 1918 in Austria

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 1-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Testing Ground ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

My Subject Today is the Austrian Revolution of 1918 and its aftermath, a staple subject in the general history of the empire and the republic, but one that has not seen vigorous historiographical discussion for a number of years. In a recent review of new historiography on the French Revolution, Jeremy Popkin has argued that recent neoliberal and even neo-Jacobin scholarship about that momentous event has confirmed the position of the revolution in the “genealogy of modern liberalism and democracy.” The endless fascination engendered by the French Revolution is owing to its protean nature, one that assayed the possibilities of reconciling liberty and equality and one that still inspires those who would search for a “usable liberal past.”1 After all, it was not only a watershed of liberal ideas, if not always liberal institutions and civic practices, but it was also a testing ground for the possibility of giving practical meaning to new categories of human rights.

scholarly journals On the Way Between Utopia and Totalitarianism. The Bolshevik Constitution of 1918 as a Model of Socialist Constitutionalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-77
Author(s):  
A. Bosiacki
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Social System ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Paris Commune ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Thought ◽  
The Russian Empire

Although Russian constitutionalism has a rich past and present, its place on the global map of the history of constitutional thought is not clearly defined yet. This paper contributes to the analysis of the early stages of development of Russian constitutionalism. The first Russian act resembling a “true” Constitution was the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918. It was aimed not at the realization of the ideas of constitutionalism, but at the formation of a model of a totalitarian state. It sanctioned radical social changes and led to the liquidation of the concept of the division of power and the omnipotence of the nonconstitutional organs (like VChK, various “tribunals”). However, this act and its ideological sources deserve a more in-depth analysis. First of all, its utopian ideas about the new social system have to be identified and examined. The analysis shows that the 1918 Constitution reflects Lenin’s fascination with the ideas of direct democracy drawn from the experience of the Paris Commune and the French Revolution after 1789. In particular, it is about the perception of the idea of unlimited supreme power, undivided and combined, and at the same time federated in the form of loose communes. If we consider the range of constitutional ideas, the Bolsheviks adopted nothing more original that the concept of Rousseau’s national sovereignty. However, the implementation of utopian ideas ended with the creation of a totalitarian system, which contemporaries called “state despotism,” more powerful than the despotism of the Russian Empire.

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