In this newly-translated excerpt from his five-volume "Course", Kliuchevsky (1841-1911) provides a colourful description of Russian court life in the 18th century, a dramatic narrative of the coup d'etat that brought Catherine II to power, a portrait of the empress herself, and an analysis of her foreign conquests and her major internal initiatives. While Kliuchevsky is critical of Catherine, he draws upon her memoirs and other writings and the accounts of her contemporaries to achieve a well-rounded and deeply human analysis of her character and personality. It is an extraordinary act of historical re-creation of the sort that brought Kliuchevsky such renown in his own time, and it remains so lifelike that it fairly leaps off the page. Kliuchevsky's examination of Western influence in Catherine's reign leads him to questions that were of urgent significance for Russia's development in his own day, and have remained so ever since: how to use Western ideas and practices to improve and enrich Russian life, without turning them into idle fashions or political bludgeons, and where to find the social leadership capable of performing such a delicate task.
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Introduction: Vasily Kliuchevsky and Catherine the Great
I The Russian State in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: Elizabeth and Peter III
II The Coup d'État of June 28, 1762
III Catherine II: Upbringing and Character
IV Foreign Policy
V Domestic Policy
VI The Commission of 1767
VII Reform of Provincial Government
VIII Serfdom
IX The Gentry and the Impact of Western Culture
Glossary of Names
Glossary of Terms
Bibliography
Index
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Yes, you can access A Course in Russian History: The Time of Catherine the Great by Vasili O. Kliuchevsky,Marshall S. Shatz in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.