Russia Engages The World 1453 1825

Download or read book Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825 written by Cynthia H. Whittaker and published by Belknap Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825, an elegant new book created by a team of leading historians in collaboration with The New York Public Library, traces Russia's development from an insular, medieval, liturgical realm centered on Old Muscovy, into a modern, secular, world power embodied in cosmopolitan St. Petersburg. Featuring eight essays and 120 images from the Library's distinguished collections, it is both an engagingly written work and a striking visual object. Anyone interested in the dramatic history of Russia and its extraordinary artifacts will be captivated by this book. Before the late fifteenth century, Europeans knew virtually nothing about Muscovy, the core of what would become the "Russian Empire." The rare visitor--merchant, adventurer, diplomat--described an exotic, alien place. Then, under the powerful tsar Peter the Great, St. Petersburg became the architectural embodiment and principal site of a cultural revolution, and the port of entry for the Europeanization of Russia. From the reign of Peter to that of Catherine the Great, Russia sought increasing involvement in the scientific advancements and cultural trends of Europe. Yet Russia harbored a certain dualism when engaging the world outside its borders, identifying at times with Europe and at other times with its Asian neighbors. The essays are enhanced by images of rare Russian books, illuminated manuscripts, maps, engravings, watercolors, and woodcuts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, as well as the treasures of diverse minority cultures living in the territories of the Empire or acquired by Russian voyagers. These materials were also featured in an exhibition of the same name, mounted at The New York Public Library in the fall of 2003, to celebrate the tercentenary of St. Petersburg.

Download or read book Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825 written by Cynthia H. Whittaker and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This elegant new book created by a team of leading historians in collaboration with The New York Public Library traces Russia's development from an insular, medieval, liturgical realm centered on Old Muscovy, into a modern, secular, world power embodied in cosmopolitan St. Petersburg.

Download or read book Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825 written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Russian History: A Very Short Introduction written by Geoffrey Hosking and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading international authority discusses all aspects of Russian history, from the struggle by the state to control society to the transformation of the nation into a multi-ethnic empire, Russia's relations with the West and the post-Soviet era. Original.

Download or read book St Petersburg and the Russian Court, 1703-1761 written by P. Keenan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-06-24 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the city of St Petersburg, the capital of the Russian empire from the early eighteenth century until the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917. It uses the Russian court as a prism through which to view the various cultural changes that were introduced in the city during the eighteenth century.

Download or read book 'By the Banks of the Neva' written by Anthony Cross and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a unique and fascinating investigation into the lives and careers of the British in eighteenth-century Russia and, more specifically, into the development of a vibrant British community in St Petersburg during the city's first century of existence as the new capital of an ever-expanding Russian empire. Based on an extremely wide use of primary sources, particularly archival, from Britain and Russia, the book concentrates on the activities of the British within various fields such as commerce, the navy, the medical profession, science and technology and the arts, and ends with a broad survey of travellers and of travel accounts, many of them completely unknown. Also included are many attractive and unusual illustrations which help demonstrate the variety and character of Russia's British community.

Download or read book Icon and Devotion written by Oleg Tarasov and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2004-01-03 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Icon and Devotion offers the first extensive presentation in English of the making and meaning of Russian icons. The craft of icon-making is set into the context of forms of worship that emerged in the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century. Oleg Tarasov shows how icons have held a special place in Russian consciousness because they represented idealized images of Holy Russia. He also looks closely at how and why icons were made. Wonder-working saints and the leaders of such religious schisms as the Old Believers appear in these pages, which are illustrated in halftones with miniature paintings, lithographs and engravings never before published in the English-speaking world. By tracing the artistic vocabulary, techniques and working methods of icon painters, Tarasov shows how icons have been integral to the history of Russian art, influenced by folk and mainstream currents alike. As well as articulating the specifically Russian piety they invoke, he analyzes the significance of icons in the cultural life of modern Russia in the context of popular prints and poster design.