商品簡介
"By focusing on space and place, the essays in this volume open aspects of Russian history that have evaded the historian's gaze and give us a new sense of the visual and emotional realities of the Russian past."
Exploring the creation, transformation, and imagination of Russian space as a lens through which to understand Russia's development from the 18th Century to the present, this volume makes an important contribution to Russian Studies and the "new spatial history."
Scholars have long appreciated space as an important factor in understanding Russia, thanks in part to Russia's geopolitical position as the largest country in the world: both a part of Europe and distinct from it. The new spatial history treats space not only as an objectively existing physical reality but also as something subjective and culturally produced. Space here is considered both an arena for historical activity and a critical element of this activity, at once shaping history and being shaped by it. Moreover, psychological processes of cognition and perception play a critical role in rendering space meaningful to the societies or groups that occupy it.
The ten essays in this volume are organized along tow thematic lines: the general problem of space and power and the valorization of space in the broader process of constructing and negotiating group identities, both social and national. With topics ranging from geopolitical perspectives to intimate personal stories, from the profanation of sacred land scapes to displays of power on the ballroom floor, this collection should be of interest to undergraduates, cultural historians, and historical geographers, as well as specialists on Russia.
作者簡介
Mark Bassin is Research Professor of the History of Ideas at Sodertorn University, Stockholm, and author of Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865.
Christopher Ely is Associate Professor of History in the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University and author of This Meager Nature: Landscape and National Identity in Imperial Russia.
Melissa K. Stockdale is a Brian and Sandra O'Brien Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma and author of Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880-1918.
