scholarly journals The Concept of a ‘Peasant War’ in Soviet and Western Historiography of the ‘Troubles’ in Early 17th-Century and Early 20th-Century Russia

Author(s):  
Maureen Perrie

The concept of ‘peasant wars’ in 17th- and 18th-century Russia was borrowed by Soviet historians from Friedrich Engels’ work on the Peasant War in Germany. The four peasant wars of the early modern period were identified as the uprisings led by Ivan Bolotnikov (1606-1607), Sten’ka Razin (1667-1671), Kondratiy Bulavin (1707-1708) and Emel’ian Pugachev (1773-1775). Following a debate in the journal Voprosy istorii in 1958-1961, the ‘first peasant war’ was generally considered to encompass the period c.1603-1614 rather than simply 1606- 1607. This approach recognised the continuities in the events of the early 17th century, and it meant that the chronological span of the ‘first peasant war’ was virtually identical to that of the older concept of the ‘Time of Troubles’. By the 1970s the term, ‘civil wars of the feudal period’ (based on a quotation from Lenin) was sometimes used to define ‘peasant wars’. It was recognised by Soviet historians that these civil wars were very complex in their social composition, and that the insurgents did not exclusively (or even primarily) comprise peasants, with Cossacks playing a particularly significant role. Nevertheless the general character of the uprisings was seen as ‘anti-feudal’. From the 1980s, however, R.G. Skrynnikov and A.L. Stanislavskiy discarded the view that the events of the ‘Time of Troubles’ constituted an anti-feudal peasant war. They preferred the term ‘civil war’, and stressed vertical rather than horizontal divisions between the two armed camps. Western historians, with the notable exception of the American historian Paul Avrich, generally rejected the application of the term ‘peasant wars’ to the Russian uprisings of the early modern period, regarding them as primarily Cossack-led revolts. From the 1960s, however, Western scholars such as Teodor Shanin (following the American anthropologist Eric Wolf) began to use the term ‘peasant wars’ in relation to the role played by peasants in 20th-century revolutionary events such as those in Russia and China. Some of these Western historians, including Avrich and Wolf, used the term not only for peasant actions in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, but also for peasant rebellions against the new Bolshevik regime (such as the Makhnovshchina and the Antonovshchina) that Soviet scholars considered to be counter-revolutionary banditry. The author argues that, in relation to the ‘Time of Troubles’ in early 20th-century Russia, the term ‘peasant war’ is not entirely suitable to describe peasant actions against the agrarian relations of the old regime in 1905 and 1917, since these were generally orderly and non-violent. The term is more appropriate for the anti-Bolshevik uprisings of armed peasant bands in 1918-1921, as suggested by the British historian Orlando Figes.

Author(s):  
Irene Fosi

AbstractThe article examines the topics relating to the early modern period covered by the journal „Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken“ in the hundred volumes since its first publication. Thanks to the index (1898–1995), published in 1997 and the availability online on the website perpectivia.net (since 1958), it is possible to identify constants and changes in historiographical interests. Initially, the focus was on the publication of sources in the Vatican Secret Archive (now the Vatican Apostolic Archive) relating to the history of Germany. The topics covered later gradually broadened to include the history of the Papacy, the social composition of the Curia and the Papal court and Papal diplomacy with a specific focus on nunciatures, among others. Within a lively historiographical context, connected to historical events in Germany in the 20th century, attention to themes and sources relating to the Middle Ages continues to predominate with respect to topics connected to the early modern period.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-445
Author(s):  
Kathrin Pindl

Abstract This paper is concerned with the storage policy of the citizens’ hospital of Regensburg in the Early Modern period (focus: 18th century). The main purpose consists of (1) a source-based micro-study that helps to derive insights into the mechanisms of how experiences and expectations have influenced decisions by a pre-modern institution, (2) an analytical scheme for describing and evaluating the process of decision-making based on narrative evidence, and (3) the suggestion of analytical categories. These should allow a differentiation between time-invariant human behaviour that determines economic decisions, and time-specific factors which can be used to separate possibly “pre-modern” patterns from seemingly modern-day capitalist economic performance.


Impact ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (7) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
Fumiko Sugimoto

Professor Fumiko Sugimoto has been analysing the history of the 18th century and first half of the 19th century with a focus not only on the temporal axis but also on the relationships between specific spaces and the people who live and act as subjective agents in these spaces. During the past few years, she has been endeavouring to decipher the history in the period of transition from the early modern period to the modern period by introducing the perspective of oceans, with a focus on Japan. Through the study of history in terms of spatial theory that also takes oceans into consideration, she is proposing to present a new concept about the territorial formation of modern states. [Main subjects] Law and Governance in Early Modern Japan Judgement in Early Modern Society The Evolution of Control over Territory under the Tokugawa State A Human Being in the Nineteenth Century: WATANABE Kazan, a Conflicting Consciousness of Status as an Artist and as a Samurai Early Modern Maps in the Social-standing-based Order of Tokugawa Japan The World of Information in Bakumatsu Japan: Timely News and Bird's Eye Views Early Modern Political History in Terms of Spatial Theory The Emergence of Newly Defined Oceans and the Transformation of Political Culture.


Author(s):  
Thomas Leinkauf

This article tries to point out that in the early modern period, including the Renaissance, philosophy increasingly developed a certain kind of thinking and arguing that needed to be sustained by ›icons‹, ›pictures‹ or ›signs‹. Following a suggestion made by Stephen Clucas in inviting a group of scholars to discuss the topos of ›silent languages‹ at Birbeck College (University of London), this paper discusses 1. a general possible meaning of ›silent language‹, divided into three modes of symbolic and geometric representation, and introducing 2. three ›stages‹ in the historical development of philosophical systems representing these three modes: Plotinus, Cusanus, the philosophy of the 16th and 17th century.


Daphnis ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-466
Author(s):  
Stefan Anders

This paper presents a joint project of the Institute for Early Modern Cultural History and the Research Library in Gotha, which is digitizing and making accessible about 8000 printed documents from the 16th to the 18th century. These documents were created on the occasion of such personal events as birth, marriage or death. During this process, numerous names of the people mentioned in these occasional documents are being identified and consolidated in a consistent format. The short biographies generated contain essential personal data, originating mostly from these documents but supplemented by information taken from reference books and other biographical resources. The huge potential of these occasional documents for the biographical reconstruction of persons of the early modern period is then demonstrated by a case study, which demonstrates the reliability of the collected data.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.P. Borodovsky ◽  
◽  
S.V. Gorokhov ◽  

Th e monograph is the fi rst source to fully introduce into scientifi c discourse the results of the comprehensive studies of the representative item of the Early Modern Period in the Upper Ob region, the Umrevinsky ostrog, that were conducted in 2010–2017 and are still under way. It is discovered that the cultural layer of this archaeological monument contains structures and artifacts dating back by their traditions to the Moscow Tzardom and the Peter I period. Th e research of an extensive necropolis of the Umrevinsky ostrog and analysis of the metal composition of those cross pendants discovered in the territory of the monument allowed attributing the chronology of its appearance and existence. Th e appendix dwells in detail upon the written sources related to the Umrevinsky ostrog and academic missions of the fi rst half of the 18th century, during which the fi rst items of the archaeological heritage in the territory of Novosibirsk region were found. Th e publication is meant for archaeologists, ethnographists, historians, local historians, museum employees, teachers, and students of the departments of history of higher education establishments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Jan Pacholski

THE OBVIOUS AND NOT SO OBVIOUS BORDERS IN THE GIANT MOUNTAINSStretching over ca 36 km, the Giant Mountains Krkonoše/Karkonosze range is a naturalborder between Silesia and Bohemia, today between Poland and the Czech Republic. In the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period, i.e. when the highest range of the Sudetes separated two provinces of the Kingdom of Bohemia, its role as border mountains was notas important, although it was precisely a border dispute between Bohemian Harrach and Silesian Schaffgotsch lords of these lands that increased interest in the region, laying the foundations, in a way, for the development of tourism in the future. Side effects of the border dispute included St. Lawrence Chapel on Śnieżka and spread of the popularity of the source of the Elbe, i.e. sites that have remained the most frequently visited spots in these mountains to this day. Around the mid-18th century, when, as a result of wars, most Silesia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia, the Giant Mountains border grew in importance. From that moment the highest range of the Sudetes would separate lands ruled by two different dynasties — the Austro-Bohemian Habsburgs and the Prussian Hohenzollerns, with two different and hostile religions — Catholic and Lutheran. Having become more significant, the border began to appear in literary works, from Enlightenment period travel accounts to popular novels. The author of the present article discusses literary images of this border, using several selected examples.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Adrian Seville

Abstract Simple race games, played with dice and without choice of move, are known from antiquity. In the late 16th century, specific examples of this class of game emerged from Italy and spread rapidly into other countries of Europe. Pre-eminent was the Game of the Goose, which spawned thousands of variants over the succeeding centuries to the present day, including educational, polemical and promotional variants.1 The educational variants began as a French invention of the 17th century, the earliest of known date being a game to teach Geography, the Jeu du Monde by Pierre Duval, published in 1645. By the end of the century, games designed to teach several of the other accomplishments required of the noble cadet class had been developed: History, the Arts of War, and Heraldry being notable among them. A remarkable example of a game within this class is the astronomical game, Le Jeu de la Sphere ou de l’Univers selon Tycho Brahe, published in 1661 by E(s)tienne Vouillemont in Paris. The present paper analyses this game in detail, showing how it combines four kinds of knowledge systems: natural philosophy, based on the Ptolemaic sphere; biblical knowledge; astrology, with planetary and zodiacal influences; and classical knowledge embodied in the names of the constellations. The game not only presents all four on an equal footing but also explores links between them, indicating some acceptance of an overall knowledge-system. Despite the title, there is no evidence of the Tychonian scheme for planetary motion, nor of any Copernican or Galilean influence. This game is to be contrasted with medieval race games, based on numerology and symbolism, and with race games towards the end of the Early Modern period in which science is fully accepted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Engl

From its origins in the early modern period up until today, German bibliology has undergone a huge transformation both in terms of its relationship to other subjects and its research areas. The article describes the development of bibliology in Germany from its beginnings in bibliographic and librarian contexts, over its evolvement as a field of study in its own rights in the late 18th century, until its current situation as a university subject. Today, German book science is a relatively small discipline which might profit from integration in broader media studies already proposed a decade ago. It has links to many other humanities subjects, especially librarian, literary, linguistic and cultural studies, and sees its task in integrating interdisciplinary research on the book instead of monopolising it. Due to the lack of an overall book theory or model, this also means making use of the research approaches of these adjoining disciplines whenever they seem promising. The bibliological studies on all aspects of books, implicitly oriented on the steps of production, distribution and reception of books and conducted by the few professorial chairs of book science, are complemented by several non-university institutions and research groups. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 439-447
Author(s):  
Jana Kolářová

The representation of age in the moralising books of early modern periodThe study focuses on some literary representations of old age and old people in selected works of the early modern period. Those are moralising books written in the years before the Battle of White Mountain published at the turn of the 17th century, namely Třinácte tabulí věku lidského The Thirteen Images of Human Life, 1601 by Bartoloměj Paprocký from Hloholy, Věk člověka The Age of Human, 1604 by Tobiáš Mouřenín from Litomyšl, Theatrum Mundi Minoris 1605 by Nathanael Vodňanský from Uračov, and Kniha o starosti aneb věku sešlém a šedivém The Book of Misery or the Wretched and Dull Age, 1610 by Havel Žalanský Phaetön.Obraz starości w moralitetach okresu wczesnonowożytnegoArtykuł koncentruje się na niektórych literackich aspektach tematu związanego ze starością i starymi ludźmi w wybranych utworach wczesnego okresu nowożytnego. Chodzi o moralizatorskie spisy zokresu przedbiałogórskiego wydane na przełomie XVI i XVII wieku, mianowicie o Třinácte tabulí věku lidského 1601 Bartosza Paprockiego, Věk člověka 1604 Tobiasza Mouřenína z Litomyśla, Theatrum mundi minoris 1605 Nathanaela Vodňanskiego zUračova i Knihu o starosti aneb věku sešlém a šedivém 1610 Havla Žalanskiego Phaëtona.


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