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The Russian Empire as an Underdeveloped Country
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
Extract
Professor Black's analysis of imperial Russian society places him unmistakably with those scholars who treat Russia essentially as an underdeveloped country and its modern history as an attempt, successful or tragic, to catch up with the West, or, in any case, to “develop.” To use the author's own words:
The interpretation suggested here is one which sees die world as composed of well over one hundred politically organized societies, each with its own deep-seated traditional institutions, undergoing at different stages a process of change which has certain universally common features. This process of change, which can be traced to the revolutionary expansion of knowledge originating in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, tends to affect in one degree or another all aspects of human activity….
Russia is one of these societies, differing from others in her traditional culture as others differ from each other, but also undergoing like them the characteristic interaction of the traditional and the modern.
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- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1961
References
1 Possibly, Professor Black's understanding of his ubiquitous “change” varies significantly from the widespread concept of “modernization,” but he nowhere makes that clear. His analysis concentrates on such actual points as industrialization, the advent of capitalism, and the increase in social mobility.
2 And even more sharply: “the modern revolution was intellectual in its origins.“
3 The relative theoretical poverty of the Russian Right did not, of course, preclude some valuable contributions. See, for example, Pipes, Richard, Karamzin's Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia: A Translation and Analysis (Cambridge, Mass., 1959).Google Scholar For an extremely inclusive and therefore richer view of Russian conservatism see Raeff, Marc, Michael Speransky, Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772-1839 (The Hague, 1957).Google Scholar
4 My knowledge of Professor Theodore Von Laue's views is based not only on his many published articles but also on numerous personal talks and on partial acquaintance with his forthcoming book on Witte and the industrialization of Russia.
5 Sumner, Benedict H., A Short History of Russia (New York, 1943).Google Scholar
6 Treadgold, Donald W., The Great Siberian Migration (Princeton, 1957).CrossRefGoogle Scholar