Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power

"In Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia, Richard Stites explores the vast panorama of Russian cultural life before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. The artistic worlds of metropolitan and provincial Russia are vividly portrayed, and the manifold dimensions of cultural production and consumption are placed within their social and political contexts with consummate skill. Immensely readable and based on complete command of the published and unpublished sources, this book is quite simply a work of breathtaking scholarship which sparkles on every page with insight and erudition. Readers will stand in awe at its formidable scope and compelling narrative, and it will quickly establish itself as the definitive study of pre-emancipation Russian culture. It is yet another monumental achievement from a master historian of Russia."-Murray Frame, University of Dundee
"This book is the latest of Stites's panoramic yet densely detailed studies of Russian culture, and it will undoubtedly prove as invaluable to scholars, students, and general-interest readers as his previous books have done. Russian Studies is blessed to have in Stites an energetic and rigorous cultural historian of both the imperial and Soviet periods. Stites possesses an extraordinary capacity to decipher complex social and institutional formations and thereby to underscore key issues in cultural politics by creating a picture of satisfying specificity. Nobody does it better."-Julie Buckler, Harvard University
"This is a great (genuinely great) book. It is an intellectual event of primary importance, whose significance is by no means confined to Russian studies. I am confident that the book will find a broad and diverse readership, it is enormously important as a historical study; it is truly innovative in its methodology; it offers an incredible wealth of exciting material; and, last but not least, it is written in a vivid language, with remarkable insight, level-headedness, and compassion."--Boris Gasparov, Columbia University, author of "Five Operas and a Symphony: Words of Music in Russian Culture"

"This book is the latest of Stites''s panoramic yet densely detailed studies of Russian culture, and it will undoubtedly prove as invaluable to scholars, students, and general-interest readers as his previous books have done. Russian Studies is blessed to have in Stites an energetic and rigorous cultural historian of both the imperial and Soviet periods. Stites possesses an extraordinary capacity to decipher complex social and institutional formations and thereby to underscore key issues in cultural politics by creating a picture of satisfying specificity. Nobody does it better."--Julie Buckler, Harvard University
"In "Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia," Richard Stites explores the vast panorama of Russian cultural life before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. The artistic worlds of metropolitan and provincial Russia are vividly portrayed, and the manifold dimensions of cultural production and consumption are placed within their social and political contexts with consummate skill. Immensely readable and based on complete command of the published and unpublished sources, this book is quite simply a work of breathtaking scholarship which sparkles on every page with insight and erudition. Readers will stand in awe at its formidable scope and compelling narrative, and it will quickly establish itself as the definitive study of pre-emancipation Russian culture. It is yet another monumental achievement from a master historian of Russia."--Murray Frame, University of Dundee