Russian autocracy. Power and its boundaries. 1462-1917
19.99 €
Out of stock
Russian autocracy. Power and its boundaries. 1462-1917
19.99 €
"By the power he has over his subjects, he far surpasses all the monarchs of the whole world. He oppresses all alike with cruel slavery. They all call themselves villeins, that is, slaves of the Sovereign..." - This is how a foreign ambassador described the style of rule of the Grand Duke of Moscow at the beginning of the XVI century. Russian power as a special, unlike anything else political system found its shape under the descendants of Dmitry Donskoy, but disputes about the origin and evolution of autocracy in Russia have been going on for centuries. The very abundance of contradictory versions - shows how this issue is still poorly understood. The new book by candidate of historical sciences S.M. Sergeev, author of the bestseller "The Russian nation, or a story about the history of its absence", for the first time in all details traces the history of the Russian autocracy, answering the most controversial questions. Why could the Russian autocrat afford what any monarch in Europe could only dream of? Why did Russia emerge from the Middle Ages without having any of the forms of limiting the ruler's power that existed in the West? Why, beginning with Peter's reforms, did it become an "Empire of Violence"? Why did the only tsar who was a convinced liberal do nothing for the triumph of these ideas on Russian soil? Why was the conservative project of Nicholas I completely ineffective? Finally, why did total, almost religious disillusionment with the authority of the monarch, whom his subjects called a "fool" and a "baba", lead to the catastrophe of 1917?
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series dissenting opinion