Early Modern Russian Empire

This course offers a broad survey of the political, economic, social, and cultural history early modern Russia. It spans from the reign of Ivan IV (or Ivan “the Terrible”) to the reign of Paul I. Major themes Russian include westernization and modernization, the integration and conquest of non-Russian peoples and territories, and the legitimization and maintenance of autocratic rule. In exploring these themes, we study relations between different subjects of the empire (elites, peasants, and everyone in between), relations between peoples and the natural and built environment in which they lived and toiled, state-church relations, and the political and cultural manifestations of power.