Paul W. Werth - 1837: Russias Quiet Revolution

Someone offering a book about Russia in 1837 has some explaining to do. People familiar with the Russian past will recall that Alexander Pushkin, Russias greatest poet, was killed in a duel that year. Some perhaps know that Russias first railway appeared then as well. But most would be hard-pressed to identify much else of note. Other years in Russian history would seem better candidates for the kind of year book that has become so prominent in popular historical works. Yet the central task of this book is to demonstrate precisely that 1837, despite initial appearances to the contrary, was exceptionally eventful and consequential for Russian history, and thatexaggerating slightlyone cannot really comprehend Russia without understanding this year.

The project grows out of research I have done over nearly three decades, mostly on religious matters, that repeatedly drew my attention to critical shifts occurring in the 1830s. The more I explored diverse realms of Russias history, the more compelling I found that initial observation to be. In an ideal world, I might have focused on a quadrennium (183639), but neither the word (quadrennium) nor the period (four years) works well from a marketing standpoint, so I concluded that a single year would have to do. Pushkins death created a strong argument for 1837, and further exploration revealed that, with some stretching here and there, I could make it work. When it occurred to me that both my home city of Chicago and my undergraduate alma mater (Knox College) were founded in 1837, I knew that fate was kicking me in the pants to get on with the project. Whether there is any merit to it is for the reader to decide.

Stephanie Ireland, David McDonald, Elizabeth Nelson, Willard Sunderland, and the late Andrew Bell (19632017) were enthusiastic about this project when I myself still feared it to be silly and self-indulgent. At an early stage, the Berkeley Russian history kruzhokoffered confirmation that the project was indeed worth pursuing, and I thank Clarissa Ibarra for the invitation. Portions of the book benefited from discussions at the European University in St Petersburg, the University of Tokyo, the University of Washington, New York University, the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan), Arizona State University (the Desert Workshop in Russian History, Year Three), Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg), and the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Numerous individual colleagues provided me with ideas, critiques, materials, answers to questions, and in some cases alcohol: Yoko Aoshima, Nadezhda Balatskaia, Greg Brown, Elena Campbell, David Darrow, Mikhail Dolbilov, Jeff Eden, Catherine Evtuhov, Victoria Frede, Gary Hamburg, Mami Hamomoto, John Hay, James Howard, Hubertus Jahn, Joanna Kepka, Igor Khristoforov, Yanni Kotsonis, Scott Levi, Mariia Lukovskaia, Olga Maiorova, Mark Mazower, Susan McCaffrey, Natalia Mazur, Patrick Michelson, David Moon, Alexander Morrison, Norihiro Naganawa, Ekaterina Pravilova, Stephen Riegg, Jeff Schauer, Benjamin Schenk, Taku Shinohara, Jeff Simpson, Barbara Skinner, Susan Smith-Peter, Darius Stalinas, Gulmira Sultangalieva, Benjamin Tromley, Ulzhan Tuleshova, Arya Udry, Teddy Uldricks, Elena Vishlenkova, Aleksei Volvenko, Richard Wortman, and Daniil Zavlunov.