PREFACE
Glasnost and perestroika, hallmarks of the policies championed by Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985 onward, had hardly materialized on what used to be called the "historical front" in what used to be called the USSR when Evgeny Anisimov's book on Elizabethan Russia appeared in 1986. The size of its initial printing (100,000 copies) and its republication in 1988, together with its warm reception at home and abroad, signalled significant changes in Soviet historical writing. For one, the topic was quite fresh for Soviet historiography inasmuch as the post-Petrine period usually was downgraded and rulers like Elizabeth ignored or denigrated. But Anisimov's treatment, although rather critical of the empress and her government's policies, offered dramatic glimpses of high politics and court intrigue, a revisionist account of the coup that put Peter the Great's daughter on the imperial throne, provocative portraits of Elizabeth herself and of other prominent personalities, Peter and Ivan Shuvalov in particular, and a sympathetic portrayal of court culture.
For another, Anisimov largely dispensed with the standard references to Marxist-Leninist "classics." His perspective may be labelled liberal-democratic and populist as much as (mildly) Marxist and revisionist. In line with the traditions of the St. Petersburg-Leningrad "school" of Russian historiography that emphasized the rigorous use of primary sources and a generally European perspective in presenting history with dramatic flair and stylistic verve, Anisimov has followed mentors such as R.G. Skrynnikov, N.Ya. Eidelman, and N.I. Pavlenko in reasserting the civic as well as entertainment value and popularity of history penned by professional scholars. Indeed, his book's literary qualities-lively, somewhat idiosyncratic prose with a fondness for metaphors and irony-marked Anisimov as one of the few professional historians capable of addressing a mass audience in quite explicit competition with historical novelists such as Valentin Pikul. His book also tapped some unusual sources such as sermons preached at court, operas and other dramatic presentations. Given the sparse scholarship in English on this period, Anisimov's book is eminently worthy of translation. Its fluent prose draws upon careful research in primary sources and a broad range of scholarship.
Anisimov has been very active in seeking to reclaim respectability for popular history. He championed perestroika in the politics of the historical profession, calling for the reorientation of such stodgy journals as Voprosy istorii (Questions of History) to take account of readers' tastes and desires, to tackle thorny issues such as the nationality problem in historical perspective, and to promote the reappraisal of the work of early St. Petersburg historians such as S.F. Platonov, B.A. Romanov, and E.V. Tarle who suffered Stalinist repression.
As the present translation suggests, Anisimov's writings have begun to receive increasing attention outside the USSR and Russia. Even earlier, in 1985, an article appeared in Italian translation while in 1989 an entire issue of Soviet Studies in History was devoted to the work of this "rising star of the Soviet historical profession," as Donald Raleigh of the University of North Carolina has dubbed him. He appears to be something of a late twentieth-century "Westernizer" in seeking more active involvement in the international scholarly community. In 1988, Anisimov attended the annual national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Honolulu, and he spent 1990-91 in Washington D.C. at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies-one of the first Soviet scholars to win more than a short-term grant there. During this visit he made several presentations to scholarly audiences including the banquet address to the annual meeting of the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies at Savannah in March 1991. This talk, entitled "Progress through Coercion. The Reforms of Peter the Great," illustrated the revisionist trend of his recent reappraisal of the tsar-transformer, as did his article on political denunciation published in Rodina (Motherland), one of the new broad-appeal journals and almanachs founded recently. Another stimulating talk at the Kennan Institute on 14 May 1991 focused on the disintegration of the Soviet empire and Russia's search for a new national ethos. Commenting on this presentation, Richard Pipes, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History at the Russian Research Center of Harvard University, "welcomed Professor Anisimov as representing a new breed of Soviet historian with whom Western historians can discuss concrete, significant topics previously forbidden in Soviet historical research." Anisimov's next book, The Reforms of Peter the Great. Progress in Coercion in Russia, published in Leningrad in 1989, appeared in English in 1993. It is a strikingly revisionist treatment of the man and the era.
Evgeny Viktorovich Anisimov was born on 4 October 1947 in the town of Aleksandrov in Vladimir Region. The local monuments associated with Aleksandrova Sloboda, the notorious capital of Tsar Ivan the Terrible's bloody Oprichnina (personal domain, terror brigade), inspired an interest in the study of history as a career. In 1966 he enrolled in the history faculty of Leningrad's Herzen Pedagogical Institute where he studied under the guidance of Professor R.G. Skrynnikov, the leading Soviet specialist on the era of Ivan the Terrible. Anisimov's own scholarly interests turned to the eighteenth century, his first work investigating the conspiracy of Artemy Volynsky in the 1730s. In 1970 he began graduate study at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It should be remembered that history was considered a science from the time of Peter the Great's foundation of the academy. Here Anisimov finished his master's dissertation on "The Internal Politics of the Supreme Privy Council, 1726-1730," which explored the counter-reforms after Peter the Great's death. In 1982 he published The Tax Reforms of Peter I. Introduction of the Poll-Tax in Russia, 1718-1728, which he defended in 1985 as his doctoral dissertation. At present he lives in St. Petersburg and works as senior researcher at the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A significant influence on the formation of Anisimov's historical views have been the books and personal contacts with N.I. Pavlenko, the leading Soviet specialist on the Petrine period. Anisimov's present book on Russia under Elizabeth marked a breakthrough from strictly academic recognition to a much wider audience.
Anisimov has published in scholarly and popular journals and newspapers. His publications cover not only the history of Russia in the eighteenth century, but contemporary issues in Russian society. He has written prefaces for new editions of the memoirs of Catherine II, Natalia Dolgorukaia, and Field Marshal Münnich. At present he is completing a book on "The Government Reforms of Peter I. Reform of the Senate and Creation of the Central Administration, 1717-1724."
In translating Anisimov's prose I have attempted to preserve some of the structure and flavor of his style while rendering his text into readable English. In instances where he quotes from English-language sources I have returned to the original texts. Furthermore, I have taken advantage of existing translations of sources such as Catherine II's memoirs, Manstein's memoirs, and Shcherbatov's critique, slightly emending passages in a few instances. Chapter titles and page distribution have been changed in the interests of greater clarity, and not all of the original illustrations could be included. The illustrations used are all from the original edition and are found in several Russian museums by eighteenth-century artists. Because this translation is aimed at a large nonspecialist audience, all footnotes have been omitted. Anisimov's citations are technical and of little interest to general readers; specialists may consult the original edition. Several of the color illustrations have been retained in the best black and white half-tones permitted by available technology. To assist readers and teachers who may wish to sample recent scholarship in English on related topics, I have appended a short listing of such work.
For assistance in stylistic and lexical matters I wish to thank my wife, Maria Kovalak Alexander, Professor Maria (Manya) Carlson of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Kansas, and Peter von Wahlde of Academic International Press. Of course, they are not responsible for the use I have made of their assistance.
J.T.A.