Introduction
Welcome to the official website of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia, an association of academics and scholars whose research interests are related to the Russian empire during the 'long' eighteenth century - that is, from the start of Peter I's reign in 1682 to the death of Alexander I in 1825. The website has a number of functions:
- to provide members with news about meetings, conferences and relevant publications
- to carry information for the wider academic community about the Study Group's activities
- to archive and digitise the contents of the Study Group's Newsletter for wider academic accessibility
As with any website, any contributions, comments or corrections are very welcome - please use the following link, which you will also find at the bottom of a number of pages.
New Books of Interest
Two recently-published books will be of interest to members of the Study Group. The first is The Romanovs: Ruling Russia, 1613-1917, the work completed by Lindsey Hughes shortly before her death earlier this year and was published in June by Hambledon Continuum. The second is St Petersburg and the British: The City through the Eyes of British Visitors and Residents by Anthony Cross, which will be published by Frances Lincoln in August - it is available for pre-order from the publisher now.
VIII International Conference of the Study Group - Durham 2009
The next international conference will be held at Van Mildert College, University of Durham, in the United Kingdom. The dates for the conference are Saturday 4 July to Thursday 9 July 2009. The local organizer will be Professor Patrick O'Meara, the principal of Van Mildert College.
The theme of the conference will be Russian history and culture during the long eighteenth century (i.e. late c17th - early c19th centuries). A provisional list of proposed panels, chairs and papers is available through the Conferences section or as a download in either RTF or PDF format. Please make sure to read the Notes section at the end of the document.
Full details of how and when to register for the conference, and of its costs, will be available in due course. Meanwhile, the all-in price quoted by the Durham University Conference and Tourism Office stands at £484 (which covers conference fee, accommodation, meals, etc.) This figure also includes a £25 supplement for the conference dinner (optional) in Durham Castle, but not the cost of wine (£15 per bottle). The cost of the outing to Bowes Museum has yet to be confirmed. An allowance has been made for inflation.
For a virtual tour of Durham Cathedral and Castle, a Unesco World Heritage Site, follow this link.
New Electronic Resource - Pushkin House Online Catalogue
The library of Pushkin House has recently updated its electronic resources, which include a number of very useful publications for c18th Russian studies, including the first twenty-four volumes of its long-standing serial XVIII Vek, its partial dictionary of c18th Russian authors and collections of c18th texts. The main site is located here - any problems with the drop-down menus can be circumnavigated by using the main site index instead.
Obituaries for the deaths of Study Group members in 2007
I am sorry to have to pass on the very sad news that Lindsey Hughes passed away on 26 April 2007, following her long and very courageous battle with cancer. She will be greatly missed by everyone who knew her, as a leading scholar in our field, as a welcoming presence at various Study Group events, and as a source of encouragement and advice to friends and colleagues.
An obituary, written by Anthony Cross, was published in the Independent newspaper on Friday 4 May. An online version of it is available here. Further obituaries appeared in The Guardian (by Robert Service) and The Times. There is also a very touching tribute to Lindsey on the SSEES web-site.
Sadly, two other members of the Study Group also passed away last year.
John Klier (UCL) died on 23 September. There is a fitting tribute to him on the UCL homepage, as well as an obituary in the Times.
Lucjan Lewitter (Christ's College, Cambridge) passed away on 19 September.
2009 Meeting of the Study Group
The next UK meeting of the Study Group will take place Monday 5 to Wednesday 7 January 2009 at the High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. The papers already offered for next year's meeting are on the topics of Radishchev's writings, Catherinian law on children and public penance under Catherine II. Anyone else wishing to offer a paper should contact Erin McBurney.
The format of meetings allows a generous 45-50 minutes per paper, which provides an excellent opportunity for discussion and feedback from an international audience. The languages are English and Russian. Synopses of papers presented will be published in the following volume of the Group's annual Newsletter. We particularly welcome the participation of postgraduate students, for whom there are a limited number of subsidized places available.
Registration forms are sent to members in the UK and Europe in November. An electronic version for those based further afield will be available for download shortly after that. The total cost of registration covers two days' accommodation in standard rooms, with all meals and beverages from tea on Monday to lunch on Wednesday. The revised costs for 2009 will be announced in due course.
The High Leigh Conference Centre is easily reached by road (on the A10) or train from London (20 minutes from Liverpool Street Station) or from Stansted Airport. Click here for a map of the area.
Publication of Wittenberg International Conference Proceedings
The proceedings for the most recent international conference of the Study Group have now been published. Details are as follows:
Roger Bartlett and Gabriela Lehmann-Carli (eds), Eighteenth-Century
Russia: Society, Culture, Economy. Papers from the VII International
Conference of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia, Wittenberg
2004.
LIT-Verlag: Mnster, January 2007. 568pp., 69.90 Euro, hardback.
Series Geschichte: Forschung und Wissenschaft, No. 23. ISBN
978-3-8258-9887-8.
Online
ordering and publisher's catalogue
This volume brings together forty papers from the Study Group's very successful international conference held in Wittenberg in 2004. The contributors include scholars from Russia, Britain, Germany, Italy and the USA: papers are written in English and in Russian. Topics range widely over the life of the Empire and its emerging modern society, institutions and discourses. The volume brings together new research on literature and its social context, on cultural models and reception, on social groups and individuals, on history, law and economy. It offers an exciting interdisciplinary insight into Imperial Russia in the 'long' eighteenth century.
