Full Description
This book discusses how ideas about democracy took shape in Russia. It considers serfdom, colonisation, autocracy and the various protests, rebellions and attempts to impose checks on this in the period before 1800. The book then examines in detail evolving thought about democracy in the nineteenth century, outlining the various sources and movements which contributed to this, emphasising in particular the important work of the thinker Michael Speransky. The book then assesses the experiments to implement democracy in 1905 and 1917, explaining why these experiments failed. Throughout, the book stresses the special conditions which pertained in Russia, showing how these conditions contributed to the particular nature of Russian democracy.
Contents
Introduction 1. The After-Shocks to Ivan the Terrible 2. Godunov and the Entrenchment of Serfdom 3. Preludes to Dumas and the Nature of the Red Square 4. Violence, Famine, and Refugees: Peasants Shake the Foundations of Empire 5. The Role of Dissidents in the Orthodox Church 6. Reforms by the Tsars 7. The Question of Mikhail Speransky 8. Alexander II and the Madness of the Coming Revolution 9. 1905 to 1921, Flirtations with State-Level Democracy Conclusion: Dances with Destiny?
