Enlightened metropolis : constructing Imperial Moscow, 1762-1855

Resource Information

The work Enlightened metropolis : constructing Imperial Moscow, 1762-1855 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Enlightened metropolis : constructing Imperial Moscow, 1762-1855

Title remainder

constructing Imperial Moscow, 1762-1855

Statement of responsibility

by Alexander M. Martin

Creator

• Martin, Alexander M

Subject

• Moscow (Russia) -- History -- 18th century
• Moscow (Russia) -- History -- 19th century
• Urbanization -- Russia (Federation) | Moscow -- History -- 18th century
• Urbanization -- Russia (Federation) | Moscow -- History -- 19th century

Language

eng

Summary

"It is a cliché that tsarist Russia had two rival capitals: St. Petersburg, Russia's 'window to Europe'; and Moscow, city of palaces and onion domes, the tradition-bound metropolis of the Orthodox heartland. 'Enlightened metropolis' challenges this cultural myth by examining the tsarist regime's efforts to turn Moscow into a European city. In the eighteenth century, Europeans and even some Russians scorned Moscow as part of Asia, and the tsars themselves thought it a benighted place that endangered both their political security and their effort to Westernize their country and gain respect for Russia abroad. Beginning with Catherine the Great, they sought to remake Moscow on the model of St. Petersburg by reconstructing its buildings and institutions, fostering a Westernized "middle estate" and constructing a new image of Moscow as an enlightened metropolis. Drawing on the methodologies of urban, social, institutional, cultural, and intellectual history, 'Enlightened metropolis' asks: How was the city's urban environment - buildings, institutions, streets, smells - transformed in the nine decades from Catherine's accession to the death of Nicholas I? How did these changes affect the everyday lives of the inhabitants, and did a "middle estate" in fact come into being? Did Moscow's urban modernization resemble that of Western cities, and how was it affected by the disastrous occupation by Napoleon in 1812? Lastly, how was Moscow's modernization interpreted by writers, artists, and social commentators in Russia and the West from the Enlightenment to the mid-nineteenth century?"--provided by publisher

Member of

• Oxford studies in modern European history

Cataloging source

StDuBDS

Dewey number

947.312063

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Oxford studies in modern European history