Call for papers: Nobility, State and Society in 18th-century Provincial Russia

Tue Sep 30 18:16:02 UTC 2008

Dear colleagues,
I am posting this message on behalf  of my colleague, Olga 
Glagoleva. Please, address all your queries to her directly.
Galina Rylkova

Call for Papers

Nobility, State and Society in 18th-century Provincial Russia
Deutsches Historisches Institut Moskau (DHI)
23-26 April, 2009
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 October 2008.

In his pioneering work on the Russian nobility of the 18th 
century, Mark Raeff wrote that
"failure to create a genuine estate of the nobility perpetuated 
the average nobleman's
rootlessness and dependence on the state" which, in the long run, 
"became the seedbed of the intelligentsia" (M. Raeff, Origins of 
the Russian Intelligentsia: The Eighteenth-Century
Nobility, 1966). This view exerts a powerful influence to this 
day; in a recent study, for
instance, we learn that "Images of alienation, absenteeism, 
economic torpidity, decline, and
crisis derive from the multiple and malleable attributes of noble 
identity" (E.K. Wirtschafter,
Social Identity in Imperial Russia, 1997). The paradigm of the 
nobility???s insecurity becomes
most pervasive when applied to the provincial nobility, whose 
customs, lifestyles, and tastes
are habitually associated with backwardness, ignorance, and 
boredom. However, as Michael
Kugler argued with respect to European history, "the nature of 
provincialism has not been
outlined in detail" (M. Kugler, "Provincial Intellectuals: 
Identity, Patriotism, and Enlightened
Peripheries," 1996). The purpose of this conference is to extend 
Kugler???s insight to Russia
and re-examine the provincial nobility in the 18th century.

A revived post-Soviet interest in the Russian provinces has 
resulted in a good number of new
publications, both in Russia and the West. These post-1991 studies 
can be roughly divided in
two major groups: those focusing on the empirical side of local 
history and seeking to unearth
new archival data, and those investing energy in the development 
of novel theoretical
approaches and generalizations. In the words of a recent review, 
"in the West we are
confronted with theory without local, and in Russia we see the 
local without theory" (Susan
Smith-Peter, "How to Write a Region: Local and Regional 
Historiography," Kritika 5.3
(2004) 527-542).

This conference aims to merge the empirical and theoretical 
approaches to local history.
Ultimately, our goal is to produce a picture of life in the 
Russian provinces that is both rich in
detail and solidly grounded in theory. Our main focus is on the 
18th-century provincial
nobility???s interactions with the state and society. For this 
purpose we plan to see what can be
gained from using local and micro history methods within a 
theoretical framework of regional
studies. It is, we believe, high time to reconsider the still 
dominant view on the life in the
provinces as backward and rude and on the provincial nobility as 
rootless and alienated.We
hope that "re-thinking history" in terms of local studies (Ch. 
Phythian-Adams) will prove
useful to our comprehension of the history of the Russian 
provinces and challenging to our
perception of the 18th -century Russian nobility.
The conference organizers aspire to bring together a group of 
scholars to present their work
and engage in discussions on the provincial nobility in 
18th-century Russia. We invite papers
on the topic that present empirically significant research based 
on diverse archival and other
sources and are, at the same time, integrated into a strong 
theoretical framework. Papers with
a comparative dimension are particularly welcome.

The following is a by no means exhaustive list of issues the 
papers might touch upon:

-the provinces versus the capital, regional versus central, local 
versus national;
-the "provincial" way of life in the 18th century;
-the provincial nobility and the state;
-the provincial nobility and society;
-social mobility in the provinces and its impact on the 
"provincial" way of life;
-local noble communities;
-local administration and the provincial nobility;
-the provincial nobility's search for an identity;
-the provincial nobility's nakazy to the Legislative Commission of 
1767-1768;
-Noble Assemblies and the formation of civil society in Russia;
-economic, social, cultural, and legal interactions in the life of 
the provincial nobility;
-gender relations in provincial noble families and communities;
-the role of women in creating provincial noble societies;
-the army presence in the provinces and its impact on the local 
nobility's life;
-the impact of the country's modernization on the provinces;
-life strategies in creating independent spaces in the provinces;
-the role of the provinces in shaping Russian national identity;
-the mythology of the provinces;
-provincialism versus regionalism;
-provincialism in its Russian, European and North American 
contexts, comparative
perspectives, etc.

Organizational Information:
The organizers have applied for funding at the Deutsches 
Historisches Institut Moskau (DHI).
The conference will take place at the DHI at the Institut nauchnoi 
informatsii po
obshchestvennym naukam Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk (INION RAN) in 
Moscow
(Nachimovskij Prospekt 51/21). The sponsoring institution would 
cover the costs for travel
and accommodation of all participants.

Conference date: 23-26 April, 2009
Abstracts in Russian or English (maximum length: 500 words) of the 
paper you intend to give
should be sent to: Nobility.DHI at gmx.de
Your abstract should include your email address and institutional 
affiliation, the title of your
intended paper, and the abstract text.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 October 2008.
Notification of applicants: no later than 1 December 2008.

Chosen participants will then be asked to submit their 
article-length (at a maximum of 10,000
words) original papers in Russian no later than 1 March 2009. The 
papers will be pre-
circulated among all participants so that there is ample time to 
read them before the
conference.
The papers will be grouped in thematic panels. Paper presentations 
at the conference will be
limited to 15 minutes. At each panel one conference participant 
will moderate and comment
briefly on the papers. The working language of the conference is 
Russian ??? no translation
services.
After the conference authors will rework their papers for 
publication in a volume to appear in
2010.

We are looking forward to reading your proposals!

Conference organizers:
Olga Glagoleva, PhD (University of Toronto) 
olga.glagoleva at utoronto.ca;
Prof. Aleksandr Kamenskii (RGGU) kamenskii at list.ru;
Ingrid Schierle (DHI) ingrid.schierle at dhi-moskau.org .

Dr. Olga Glagoleva
University of Toronto
416-363-7870
olga.glagoleva at utoronto.ca
--
RYLKOVA,GALINA S

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