midterm two Flashcards
peter i’s foreign policy
wars granted access to the seas
- southern access to the black sea (ottoman empire)
- the northern war against the swedes
peter defeats king charles xii in 1709 at the battle of poltava, a highly publicized event
st. petersburg
st. petersburg was founded in 1703 after peter lost the battle of narva
“the city of saint peter”
the monarch’s patron, st. peter, was the first bishop of rome
expressed peter’s imperial ambition
1721
peter becomes emperor after winning the northern war and gains access to the baltic sea
the stardom becomes an empire and the tsar becomes an emperor
the russian empire consists of russia, white russia (belarus), and small russia/malorossijo (ukraine)
the table of ranks
- contained 14 ranks
- was used until 1917
- three fields: army/navy, administration, court
- based on merit, not birth
peter’s church reform
- patriarch is the head of the russian orthodox church (roc)
- in 1720, the patriarch dies, but peter doesn’t appoint a new one
- he creates a new office to run/control the church, the holy synod
- the synod was headed by a civil servant (often from the military)
- the synod runs the roc until 1917
peter’s cultural reform
- brutally imposed on the russian people
- changed to the julian calendar
- modified the cyrillic alphabet to look more latin-y
- introduced arabic numbers
- forced nobility to dress in european clothing styles
- forced noblemen to cut their beards (could pay a tax to keep them)
- forced men into western social occasions with women, known as “assemblies”
- forced aristocracy to move from moscow to petersburg
- inapplicable to peasants, clergymen, and merchants
first russian museum
kunst kamera
peter’s political schism
westernization concerned only a small minority of the population (aristocrats)
resulted in a gap between the elites and the rest of the population
aristocracy felt estranged and guilty in their own country
peter’s foreign architects
domenico tressini (switzerland)
andreas schüter (germany)
jean-baptiste leblond (france, built peterhoff)
the vedomosti
first russian newspaper (established in 1703)
government-run
translates to “the news”
would later become “the st. petersburg news”
etiquette manuals
in 1717, “the youth’s honest mirror” is published, which encourages gentle and well-behaved nobles and courtiers
petrovian literature
- fiction about young russian nobles
- action was set in contemporary times
- young heroes would travel to contemporary europe
- individual talent was stressed over birthright
- prose and romance genres emerge
russian empresses
catherine i
anna ivanovna
elizabeth peprovna
catherine ii
empress’ rule’s dynamics (heavily relied on nobility)
empresses only gained the throne due to the nobility, so they rewarded them by accommodating them
undermined peter’s merit system and reinstated the birth system
anna created a cadet corp school for noble children
limited state service to only 25 years
nobility were given a monopoly on alcohol production, making them even richer
empress’ rule’s dynamics (peasant’s conditions worsened)
more limitations were placed on serf’s rights
no time limit on retrieving runaway serfs
serfs could be sent to siberia if nobles were unhappy with them
neoclassicism
new literature influenced by antique literature from ancient greece and rome
developed in 17th century france in louis xiv’s court
has rational rules and imitates classics
introduced the concept of genres
hierarchy of neoclassic genres
epic
tragedy
ode
satire
comedy
short narrative
fable
epigram
elegy
odes
odes are long, laudatory poems dedicated to the glory of someone important
writers would write odes to the sovereign and other courtiers
writing odes granted money, protection, or a higher rank
modeled the patron/client system, with dignitaries as the patron and poets as the clients
neoclassic poets
antiokh kantemir (prince)
vasily trediakovsky (commoner)
mikhail lomonosov (commoner)
alexander sumarokov (aristocrat)
catherine ii’s reforms
- catherine ii was very well read, fashioning herself as an enlightened despot (believing in absolutism with power being limited by the law), and also a writer
- wanted to rule an enlightened nobility
- supported the arts, sciences, development of literature, and translation
- granted nobility the right to free press and encouraged publishing
“the journey from petersburg to moscow”
written in 1790 by alexander radischev as a fictional travelogue
it was staunchly anti-catherine, resulting in her sending him to siberia
the pugachev rebellion
lasted from 1773-1774
emilean pugachev was a southeastern cossack who rebelled by pretending to be peter iii
recruited the broads and some serf peasants
this rebellion disturbed catherine greatly
catherine ii’s conquering
- captured most of poland through three partitions, leading to the concept of finis poloniae (“the end of poland”)
- gained part of western ukraine belarus
- gained southern and southeastern ukraine and crimea from the tatars
- two new cities: odessa (commercial port) and sebastopol (naval base)
- grigori potemkine was responsible for these expansions, calling it “new russia”
greek project
catherine ii’s plan to create a new orthodox greek satellite state through expansion
catherine ii’s westernizing
- russian music develops, seeing the first russian composers and operas
- russian painting school developed and sculptures appear
- all art is now on an elite european level
- neoclassicism architecture was simpler, antique-inspired, and modeled after greek temples and roman villas
- neopaladianism was based on the designed of italian architect palladio
sentimentalism
introduced new genres: diaries, private letters, and short stories
focused on private life and building human relationships
challenged traditional values such as state service and public success
replaced these ideas with intimacy, friendship, and family happiness
freemasonry
secret societies of men that performed rituals in order to achieve moral improvement
cult of brotherhood and social equality between members
they created an ideal, secluded alternative society where nobles have more agency
catherine and the government were strongly against the freemasons because it was outside their control
alexander i’s war timeline
1801 - 1805: tries liberal reforms
1805 - 1807: first war against france, russia loses
1807 - 1812: more liberal reforms led by mikahil speranski, who wanted to imitate the french system, but faced opposition from the conservative nobles
1812: napoleon invades russia with his “great army” of a million soldiers and russia sets moscow on fire
1812 - 1815: second war against france, speranski is fired, russia wins, leading to the end of napoleon
1814: russia occupies paris
the great moscow fire
the french believed the fire was a sign of savagery
russians believed the fire was a sign of stoicism
tsar alexander i believed the fire was a punishment for his patricide and a call to become god’s instrument on earth to defeat napoleon
the holy alliance
- created by alexander in 1815
- union of russia, prussia, and austria based on religion
- application of religious ideals to foreign policy
- active until the 1840s, mostly suppressed rebellions
- major step in the rise of russia political messianism
decemberists
wanted to westernize and become a constitutional monarchy
alexander shishkov
an “archaist,” believing that russian literature should return to being written in church slavonic
golden age of russian poetry
1820 - 1841 (nicholas’ reign)
policeman of europe
nickname for nicholas i because he hated any form of revolution, domestic or foreign
the crimean war
last from 1853 - 1856
led to the collapse of nicholas’ regime
one of the first modern wars in the west
revealed russia’s underdevelopment compared to the rest of europe
culture under nicholas
1820: alexander pushkin published “ruslan & ludmila”
1841: mikhail lermentov dies
- poetry dominated over prose
- all poets were aristocrats (no plebian writers)
romanticism
emphasized individual freedom, youth, boredom/disgust over society, marginality (obsession with gypsies), fascination with death and thrill-seeking, exoticism, and nature
the pushkin group
tried to imitate pushkin’s work
main poets were anton delving and petr vyazemsky
the decembrist poets
main poets were wilhelm küchelbecker (sent to siberia) and kondraty ryleev (hung)
wrote about their love of freedom, hatred of autocracy, and their longing for political sacrifice
obsessed with the serfs and sympathized with the oppressed
the philosophical poets
main concept was german romantic/idealistic philosophy (especially shelling)
main poets were dmitri venevitov and evgeni baratynski
pushkin’s narratives
- “prisoner of the caucasus” was about colonial conquest
- “the gypsies” was about freedom and jealousy
- “poltava” was about peter the great
- “the bronze horseman” was about individualism versus autocracy
pushkin’s prose
- “the tales of belkin” (metatextual)
- “the queen of spades” (supernatural)
- “the captain’s daughter” (pugachev rebellion)
alexander pushkin (1799 - 1837)
- considered russia’s best poet
- gained a cult following (especially during soviet times)
- fixed russia’s literary language
- romanticist and a dandy
- wrote a novel in verse called “eugene onegin” where the hero is a st. petersburg dandy in a romantic drama
the superfluous man
type of russian literary protagonist
a man who doesn’t fit in anywhere
i.e. chatsky (“woe from wit”), onegin (“eugene onegin”), pechorin (“a hero of our time”)
mikhail lermentov
- aristocrat and military officer
- byronic, ironic, fearless, womanizing, narcissistic
- hated conformity, obsessed with individual liberty
- also a painter, duelist, and a thrill-seeker
- romanticist who wrote lyrical poetry
- wrote “the death of the poet” that blamed the court for pushkin’s death
- lived 1814 to 1841
“a hero of our time”
novel written in 1840 by mikhail lermentov
collection of short stories of exoticism and adventure
first example of russian psychological prose
led to a cultural shift from focus on poetry to a focus on prose
pecorino is the protagonist and superfluous man
nikolay gogol
- ukrainian, but wrote in russian
- absurd writer who focused on the grotesque and ridiculous
- started with short stories about bureaucrats in petersburg and their fantasies
- considered a social writer
- sympathized with the poor bureaucrats and the “little man”
- wrote “the overcoat” and “the diary of a madman”
dead souls
long novel written in 1842 by nikolay gogol
the hero is chichikov who is a figure for the devil
“dead souls” refers to the dead serfs and their owners
dark comedy, metaphor for russia’s grand future
sergey uvarov
minister of education who developed the 1831 triad of “orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality”
petr chaadaev
in 1836, published the first of his “philosophical letters”
- russia is disconnected from the rest of the world (it’s not europe or asia)
- it has an empty history, no space, and no past
- forced to import foreign models and forced to parrot
- has no future of it’s own
- believed joining the greek church was a grave mistake because the greek church was evil while the catholic church was the driving force behind history
