A Course in Russian History

This work by the great 19th-century historian is available once again in an acclaimed 1968 translation that conveys the beauty of Kliuchevsky's language and the power of his ideas. In this volume, Kliuchevsky untangles the confused events of the Time of Troubles and the emergence of the Romanov dynasty, and develops his interpretation of the century as prologue to the Petrine reforms. He dramatically underlines the cultural divide between old Russia and the emergent autocracy and the strangely ambivalent relationship between Russia and the West.

Vasili O. Kliuchevsky (1841-1911) was the most eminent Russian historian of his day-a pathbreaking scholar, a spellbinding lecturer, an engaging stylist, and a great synthesizer whose works have stood the test of time. The Seventeenth Century is the third volume of Kliuchevsky's five-volume masterpiece, A Course in Russian History, originally published in 1907. This unabridged translation is based on Volume 3 of the 1957 Soviet edition of Kliuchevsky's collected works., Alfred J. Rieber, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, is a prolific author on Russian history and a recipient of the E. Henry Harbison Award of the Danforth Foundation for distinguished teaching.

Chapter 1 The Crisis at the End of the Sixteenth Century; Chapter 2 The Time of Troubles; Chapter 3 The Causes of Civil Disorder; Chapter 4 Political Reconstruction; Chapter 5 Muscovy, Eastern Europe and the Ukraine; Chapter 6 The Cossacks; Chapter 7 Law and Society; Chapter 8 Local Government and the Class Structure; Chapter 9 The Coming of Serfdom; Chapter 10 The Zemsky Sobor; Chapter 11 Finances; Chapter 12 Social Critics; Chapter 13 Russia and the West; Chapter 14 The Cultural Pattern; Chapter 15 The Church Schism; Chapter 16 Tsar Alexei; Chapter 17 A Muscovite Statesman: Ordin-Nashchokin; Chapter 18 V. V. Golitsyn and Plans for Reform;