History 19N Winter 2002-3
Nancy S. Kollmann Wed 1:15-3:05

Freshman Seminar: Peter the Great: Man and Myth

WEB ASSIGNMENTS:Feb 5: Sovereignty ~ Feb 12: Family Portraits ~ Feb. 19: Imperial Expansion ~ Feb. 26: After Death

This course explores the towering figure of Peter the Great, who ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725. Many say that he revolutionized Russia by making it part of Europe; others have a less positive view of Peter. We will form our own interpretations of this ambitious man by examining what he did (history) and what later generations of historians said about him (historiography).

Class structure: Class will be devoted to examining the cultural and political background of Muscovite Russia in which Peter grew up, and then exploring his various reforms and achievements. There will be particular emphasis on primary sources and frequent brief slide presentations to give a visual image of Peter and his times.

Papers: The short paper will focus on one primary source. In the long paper we will all work on "myth" of Peter - each student will choose a particular contemporary account of Peter or later historian's account and analyze the author's viewpoint and interpretation. Oral reports on them (see below) will then constitute a sort of chronological survey of the rise and fall and rise again of the "Peter" myth.

Oral reports: We will have a strong emphasis on oral presentation in the class. Each week in class students will be responsible for all assigned readings, and each week one student will give a brief, 5-10 minute report on the readings that should end with a set of questions for discussion. The last two weeks of class will be devoted to reports on your papers. At some point in class time we'll have a training session about giving oral reports.

Requirements and grading:

50% of grade = Papers.

one 3-5 page paper, analysis of primary source, due in class, 29 January

10-page paper in first and final drafts. First draft due on March 5; final draft due Friday, March 14

Readings:

Week 2: Hughes, Sofiia, Regent of Russia: only at Green Reserve.

Week 3: M. S. Anderson, Peter the Great: purchase at Bookstore

Various weeks: Lindsey Hughes, Russia in the Era of Peter the Great: You can purchase it at Bookstore but we won't be reading it all; it will also be on reserve at Green

Everything else: in Course Reader, purchase at Stanford Bookstore.

*****

Handouts - Dmitrii Donskoi life, Peter's letters to his wife

Hughes, Sofiia Alekseevna, chaps. 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, pp. 3-51, 91-104, 134-78, 221-61 ON RESERVE

Primary source: de la Neuville, chap. 9 (handout given in first class)

1. Political ideology as exemplified by Sofiia
2. Sofiia as ruler in her own right, as figurehead?
3. What was new, what was traditional in Sofiia's reign?
4. Contrast how Sofiia came to power in 1682 with how Peter came to power in 1689
5. Cultural life in time of transition
6. What constitutes a good biography? Is Hughes' book a a good biography?

3. 22 Jan Overview of Peter's life

PETER'S FAMILY

M.S. Anderson, Peter the Great. PURCHASE AT BOOKSTORE

Primary source: various writers on Peter's personality Issues:

1. Goals and accomplishments: Peter as domestic reformer
2. Goals and accomplishments: Peter as military leader
3. Goals and accomplishments: Peter and Russian culture
4. Anderson's book as biography

Rowland, "The Problem of Advice"

Raeff, Understanding Imperial Russia, chap. 2, pp. 35-44, 50-55

Prokopovich on Peter's power: Vernadsky pp. 371-73

Issues:

1. Analyze Rowland's argument about Muscovite ideas of politics
2. Define the well ordered police state and how you achieve it
3. Close analysis of ideological sources - Peter and Prokopovich, contrast to traditional Russian views
4. Is Peter's claim to absolutism so different from Muscovite tsars' claims to autocratic power? If so, how?

Paper due today: 3-5 pages, on theme: "Based on what you know so far, what would you say was Peter the Great's greatest achievement?" Use all prior assigned readings.

5. 5 Feb Transforming Russia through symbolism and ritual

Political ideology in imagery:

Hughes, Russia in the Age, chap. 8

Wortman on ritual, symbolism, chap. 2, pp. 42-78

Hollingsworth, "Carnival and rulership"

Peter's letters to his wife: Oliva, pp. 66-72

1. Carnival and parody as political strategy
2. Statues, portraits, rituals as instruments of power
3. The theme of love and role of women in power

6. 12 Feb The private life, the public sphere: transforming Russia through political reform, social change and religion

WEB ASSIGNMENT ON FAMILY PORTRAITS

Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great, chaps. 4, 6 and 10

Domostroi excerpts

"Honorable Mirror of Youth"

Vernadsky, p. 328-29, 343-44, 347

decree on assemblies

Issues:

1. What was his goal in reforming institutions of government?
2. How much did society change under Peter - in overall social structure, in individual mentality? Which social classes changed most?
3. Contrast the ideal youth, boy and girl, in Petrine "Mirror of Honorable Youth," to the Muscovite ideals What role did Peter envision religion playing in his reformed Russia? Was Peter anti-religious?
4. Some say that of all Peter's achievements, his reforms of society and culture for the nobility were his most important - do you agree?
5. What does all this domestic reform have to do with the "well- ordered police state"?

7. 19 Feb Russians confront Peter in his time

WEB ASSIGNMENT ON IMPERIAL EXPANSION

Cracraft, "Opposition to Peter the Great"

primary sources as case studies:

Vernadsky pp. 348-50 (popular opposition)

Oliva, pp. 97-98 (Old Believers)

Peter and the musketeers in 1698 - Oliva pp 90-93, 23-25, and Dmytryshyn, pp. 1-13

Peter and his son Aleksei: Dmytryshyn, pp. 23-33, Oliva pp. 61- 66, Vernadsky, pp. 340-41

Issues:

1. Where (what social groups, what points of view) did opposition to Peter come from?
2. Does traditional Muscovite ideology give space or legitimacy for political opposition? Did Petrine ideology do so?
3. Close analysis of what musketeer incident tells re Peter, his ideology of power, reform in Russia
4. Analysis of political ideology represented in Peter's interchanges with Aleksei
5. Aleksei - throwback to old Muscovy, or himself a product of Petrine reforms?

8. 26 Feb Russians come to grips with Peter:

WEB ASSIGNMENT ON REPRESENTATIONS OF PETER AFTER HIS DEATH

Eulogy to Peter at his death in 1725 by Prokopovich: Oliva pp. 78-81

Foreigners build a myth of Peter:

Weber, Vockerodt: Dmytryshyn, Modernization, pp. 26-43

Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great, pp. 462-70

Issues:

1. Analyze the terms in which Prokopovich praises Peter; compare to Muscovite precedents
2. Components of the cult of Peter the Great in his lifetime - Peter's contribution to that cult, foreigners' contribution, Russians'
3. Images of Muscovy in the Peter cult
4. Your opinion of Peter

FIRST DRAFT OF LONG PAPER DUE

10. 12 March Dead Week Student reports and wrap up: how do you evaluate Peter?

History 19N N S Kollmann

Winter 2002-3 Wedn., 1:15-3:05

Paper topics

The paper should examine an aspect of the "myth" of Peter the Great, either as it was worked out in his time, or by subsequent generations of historians. So, it can take either of two approaches:

** an analysis of a particular historian's view of Peter - he has been "all things to all people" and you will find a wide range of opinions

** a study of a foreigner's account of Peter and his times - there are some really good, interesting ones that raise the issue of Europeans envisioning the "Other."

Contemporaries write about Peter and his time

General Patrick Gordon, a military officer in Russian service in the time of Peter's father and Peter's youth. The source is more about Gordon and his travels and travails, but it gives some good background on life in Russia and at the court in late 17th-century Russia. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon (London, 1968).

Johann Georg Korb was secretary to the Hapsburg envoy to Moscow in 1698-99. He describes not only the execution of the rebellious musketeers in 1698, but Russia's general condition as well. Diary of an Austrian Secretary of Legation at the Court of Peter the Great, ed. and trans. Count Macdonnell, 2 vols. (London, 1863).

Peter Henry Bruce. This military officer in service to Peter described his life from 1704 to 1745. He includes lots of "interesting anecdotes" about Peter the Great. You should read only the most relevant parts since it's rather long. Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, Esq. (London, 1782).

Charles Whitworth. An English diplomat who had extensive personal interaction with Peter describes him and his times. An Account of Russia as it was in the year 1710. (1758). Green - Special Collections Z239.2 S91 W48 You'll have to read it in the library.

Ivan Pososhkov. This Russian wrote this project for reform for Peter in 1724, so it's not so much about Peter as about the ideas of reform that some sympathetic people of his day supported. The Book of Poverty and Wealth, ed. and trans. A P Vlasto and L R Lewitter (Stanford, CA, 1987).

John Perry, engineer at Peter's court 1698-1712. This is a terrific source since it puts Peter in the context of Muscovite customs and traditions, seen through the eyes of a very biased Englishman. A very tendentious reading of Muscovy and of Peter, and very influential on later generations of historians. The State of Russia under the Present Czar (London, 1967).

Friedrich Christian Weber was a diplomat in Russia from 1714-19 from Hanover, Germany. His book is wide-ranging, about Peter, his reforms and life in Russia then. The Present State of Russia, 2 vols. (London, 1722-23).

Feofan Prokopovich, political theorist. A. Lentin, ed., Peter the Great: His Law on Imperial Succession in Russia, 1722 (Oxford: Headstart History, 1996). Green - DK133.P47 1996 A publication of the long justification written by Peter's ideologue, Feofan Prokopovich, on Peter's decision to abolish hereditary succession and replace it with succession by appointment. Also has long introductory essays. A good topic if you're interested in political theory, absolutism and Enlightenment, etc.

Major historians on Peter and what he meant for Russia

S. M. Solov'ev. This mid 19th-century Russian historian represents a school called the "Westernizers" and his view of Peter reflects that bias. It's vol. 29 of his massive "History of Russia." Peter the Great. The Great Reforms Begin, ed. and trans. K. A. Papmehl. Green = DK40 .S6213 vol. 29.

Ivan Kireevskii, Konstantin Aksakov. These two mid 19th-century Russian publicists represent a school called the "Slavophiles," which was in some way opposed to the "Westernizers" and demonstrated emphathy for Russia's heritage before Peter the Great. It's the Russian parallel to European romanticism. Essays in Marc Raeff, Russian Intellectual History (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1966) or later editions.

V. O. Kliuchevskii, Peter the Great, trans. Liliana Archibald. A major Russian historian of the late 19th century; a very influential, critical stance.

Various Soviet views. Soviet Marxist historiography went through many revisions in the 20th century, but it's not well represented in English. You will probably find excerpts, rather than whole biographies, and so you might do a collective approaching representing the three major stages in the Soviet theory of history. They are: l) 1920s -- M. M. Pokrovskii,. a very "materialist" approach, 2) 1930s-50s: Stalinist history writing was more sympathetic to great personalities in history, 3) 1960s-70s some cautious revision of the Marxist-Leninist canon. Ask Prof. Kollmann for specific bibliography

Evgenii Anisimov. This leading Russian scholar from St. Petersburg is the dominant voice on Peter today, and his view is very different from the Soviet official dogma that had preceded him. This is a terrific book to review, because the author is so opinionated. The Reforms of Peter the Great. Progress through Coercion in Russia, trans. John T Alexander (1993).

More recent, Western biographies

Robert K. Massie, Peter the Great. His Life and World (NY, 1980). This massive biography written for a popular audience might have been titled "Peter the Great and Charles XII," since so much attention here is given to Peter's swashbuckling adventures in his war against the similarly dynamic and youthful Charles, King of Sweden (Peter won the war). A good read.

Marc Raeff, Understanding Imperial Russia (NY, 1984). Raeff is the dean of American historians on Russia in the eighteenth century. This book is an extended essay on what Peter was trying to do, and whether he succeeded. It spans from the late 17th-century to 1825 and looks for continuities and changes.

Paul Bushkovitch, Peter the Great. Struggle for Survival (2001). Bushkovitch teaches at Yale. This is a long complex but fascinating book about court politics under Peter. Addresses issues of continuity between Muscovy and Petrine Russia, Peter's overall intentions, his personality.

Literary portrayals of Peter and Petersburg, and other media

Alexander Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman" and "The Moor of Peter the Great." Pushkin was Russia's greatest poet; he lived in the early decades of the 19^th century. The poem, "Bronze Horseman," puts Peter at the center of a tale of love and hate in St. Petersburg and is a major contribution to the "myth" of Peter. The "Moor" is a fictional, uncompleted novel about an African military officer at Peter's court who was an ancestor of Pushkin, and it shows how much life had changed by the end of the 18^th century.

Nikolai Gogol. This mid 19th-century Russian author of satirical stories often developed the theme of St. Petersburg in his writings, using the city as a metaphor for what Peter did and what Russia had become. This "Petersburg" theme started with the "Bronze Horseman" and can be traced through many of Russia's key novelists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. If you are interested in Gogol, we will narrow down the list to a few short stories, such as "The Overcoat" and "The Nose" and perhaps one of his satirical plays.

D. S. Merezhkovsky, Peter and Alexis. A 1905 novel about Peter's relationship with his rebellious son, written by a Russian symbolist writer with strong religious and mystical overtones. Based on a lot of historical research into the time.

Aleksei Tolstoi, Peter the First (1929-45). Regarded as the best novel about Peter from a literary point of view and from the point of view of historical accuracy and detail. A great story, focusing on Peter's youth in the "German quarter" and his early reforms up to 1702.

Andrei Belyi, Peterburg. A great modernist novel of the early 20th century, this develops the "Petersburg" theme, taking the city as metaphor for Russia's condition. A long, sometimes difficult, but terrific novel.

NBC movie on Peter the Great starring Vanessa Redgrave and Max von Sydow. Need we say more? Fun to watch, but difficult to review. You would have to read widely about various views of Peter in order to assess where this movie is getting its information, what is historically accurate, what is Hollywood, etc. Not an easy project.