Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Russia in World History by Barbara Alpern Engel, Janet Martin

2016; World History Association; Volume: 27; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jwh.2016.0096

1527-8050

Carl Rogers Ackerman,

Soviet and Russian History

Reviewed by: Russia in World History by Barbara Alpern Engel, Janet Martin Carl Rogers Ackerman Russia in World History. By Barbara Alpern Engel and Janet Martin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 156pp. $19.95 (paper). Barbara Engel and Janet Martin take Russian history from the Scythians to the first term of President Vladimir Putin. The approach is comprehensive, with the first two chapters on the formations of Kiev and Muscovy, respectively, chapter 3 covering late Muscovy to the Romanovs, and the next three chapters covering Peter’s revolution, the establishment and flourishing of empire, and the denouement of Russian strength with the Russian Revolution of 1905. World War I, the Russian Revolutions of 1917, the development of the Soviet Union to 1945, and the end of World War II all are surveyed in chapter 7; the last chapter takes us through the Cold War to Vladimir Putin (but only his early reign). The eloquent description of the beginning of the Rus seems to closely follow the Primary Chronicle, with Martin, a specialist in medieval Russian history (emeritus from the University of Miami), relying heavily on this primary document. The original Kievan law codes, the struggle for territory with other tribes north of the Black Sea, and trade with Constantinople, based on Russian honey, wax, and furs, set the stage for the Russian civilization. Of course, religion and the Cyrillic script come transported from Constantinople. The second chapter narrates the story of the Mongols, whose conquests of Russia began in 1237; as is pointed out by Martin, this led to the shift northward of Russian culture and prosperity, even after the Mongols left Russian soil. While this story is well known in most general histories of Russia, Martin pauses in her treatment of the political dialogue of the first rulers of Muscovy to briefly note the Holy Trinity Monastery and in particular, the icon and fresco painter Andrei Rublev (1370–1430). Perhaps what is missing here is the reason for the Mongol devastating victories over the Rus. A look at Daniel Kwok’s “Era of the Great Khans” (1972), which emphasized the military training of the Mongols, their uncanny ability to live off the land, and their expertise in ruling and creating a Pax Mongolica over a European-Asian sphere, would have been useful in this regard.6 After the defeat of the Mongols at Kulikovo in 1380, the real development of Muscovy begins (although Martin is careful to point out that the Mongols will remain in Russia for another fifty years) [End Page 369] with the early influence of Renaissance artists on Moscow cathedrals. Martin’s interweaving of adroit architectural descriptions, as in “the gold cupolas of the Orthodox cathedrals rising above the red brick walls, gates and towers of the triangular fortresses became an emblem” (p. 29) makes her text much more colorful than that of standard political history. But political history is not missing from this chapter, as she includes the destructive history of Ivan the Terrible, the resulting Time of Troubles, and the eventual rise of the Romanovs, starting in 1613. Also included is the eastern expansion of the don Cossack Yermak, the mercantile ventures of the Stroganov family, and the great schism brought about by Patriarch Nikon, resulting in the creation of the Old Believers, led by the priest Avvakum. The Petrine Revolution (1689–1725) is diminished a bit in chapter 4, in that Peter is characterized as “building on the innovations of his predecessors” (p. 45). One wonders whether the authors had the opportunity to read the splendid monograph by Nicholas V. Riasanovksy, The Image of Peter the Great in Russian History and Thought (as it is not listed in the posted bibliography at the end of their book).7 Still, the authors focus on Peter’s accelerating and expanding the process of westernization with reforms in the army, the building of the navy, the construction of St. Petersburg, Russia’s “Window to the West,” the grand embassy to Western Europe, Peter’s insistence on Western styles of dress and fashion, the new Table of Ranks, where even a commoner like Menshikov, the seller of pies, could obtain a royal position, and the birth of...