The Russian Moment in World History [Paperback]

Marshall T. Poe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0691126062 | ISBN-13: 978-0691126067

Is Russian history one big inevitable failure? The Soviet Union's demise and Russia's ensuing troubles have led many to wonder. But this is to look through a skewed prism indeed. In this provocative and elegantly written short history of Russia, Marshall Poe takes us well beyond the Soviet haze deep into the nation's fascinating--not at all inevitable, and in key respects remarkably successful--past.

Tracing Russia's course from its beginnings to the present day, Poe shows that Russia was the only non-Western power to defend itself against Western imperialism for centuries. It did so by building a powerful state that molded society to its military needs. Thus arose the only non-Western path to modern society--a unique path neither "European" nor "Asian" but, most aptly, "Russian."

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Russia prevailed despite unparalleled onslaughts by powerful Western armies. However, while Europe nurtured limited government, capitalism, and scientific and cultural revolution, early Russian society cultivated autocracy and command economics. Both Europe and Russia eventually created modern infrastructures, but the European model proved more productive and powerful. The post-World War I communist era can be seen as a natural continuation of Russia's autocratic past that, despite its tragic turns, kept Russia globally competitive for decades.

The Russian moment in world history thus began with its first confrontations with Europe in the fifteenth century, and ended in 1991 with the Soviet collapse. Written with verve and great insight, The Russian Moment in World History will be widely read and vigorously debated by those who seek a clear and unequivocal understanding of the complex history that has made Russia what it is today.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In this short, muscular essay, Poe covers Russian history in its widest parameters, assessing various theses about the subject and offering his own. This is an interesting exercise for Russophiles since the historical controversies are enduring and, with regard to the Communist period, very polarized. Right off, Poe rejects the idea that Russians over the centuries have had a predisposition to authoritarianism, expansionism, or messianism--all categories of analysis one can find in the historiography both by Russians and Westerners. But surprisingly, Poe proceeds to interpret Russian history in terms that Russian leaders themselves have used to justify autocracy and territorial expansion: namely, the preservation of independence against European invaders. Since Russia achieved this goal, Poe views the features of Russia that are negative to many historians--its people's comparative poverty and abjectness before the power of the state--as a consequence of geography rather than inherent to Russian history. Students will find Poe an able provocateur of debate. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

If half a millennium of Russian history is to be distilled into a hundred pages of text, one has to have a strong thesis. Poe does. . . If those who disagree can offer a counterargument as compact, vigorous, and accessible as Poe's, the rest of us will greatly benefit. -- Foreign Affairs

Condensing 1,400 years of history into 100 well-argued pages is a remarkable feat, one Poe accomplishes in terse but powerfully stated prose. . . . Poe effectively commits to his chosen path of navigation and distills his observations and vast knowledge into a clear and well-presented theory. The author deserves credit for taking on the gutsy task of re-educating that he sees as a misinformed public with humility intact, an achievement that is a testament to the purity of his intent. -- Gabriella Gershenson, San Francisco Chronicle

Students will find Poe an able provocateur of debate. -- Booklist

This slim volume offers a sweeping yet cogent and highly stimulating reinterpretation of the entire course of Russian history from the time of the earliest settlers in Russian lands to the collapse of the Soviet Union. While intended for general readers, the author's views are firmly grounded in recent scholarship. -- Choice

The task of compressing the whole history of Russia into a hundred easy-to-read pages would be a hard challenge for any serious historian, but the proposition of building and testing in the same space an innovative concept of what Russia is about might seem beyond possible. This neat book by Poe, which many readers would find difficult to put down before turning the last page, is the tangible proof that such a task can indeed by accomplished--and with astounding ease. -- Pavel Baev, Journal of Peace Research

The thesis of this volume is that as late as the fifteenth century Russia was largely irrelevant to world history, that it became a noteworthy player in the sixteenth century, and that it remained so most of the time until 1991. -- Richard Hellie, Journal of Modern History

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (February 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691126062
• ISBN-13: 978-0691126067
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #749,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If half a millennium of Russian history is to be distilled, January 9, 2005

By 

Kaushik "Dance to the tension of a world on edge" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Russian Moment in World History (Hardcover)

into a hundred pages of text, one has to have a strong thesis. Poe does: once the Muscovite state collected itself in the sixteenth century, he says, Russia embarked on an alternative path to modernity. Unlike Europe, Russia combined autocracy, "control of the public sphere," state-controlled economy, and "state-sponsored militarism." This mix, moreover, made Russia the only "sustainable society capable of resisting the challenge of Europe." With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 400-year "Russian moment" ended -- that is, the Russian path to modernity expired, and something else now awaits the country. Much of Poe's general description will not be contested, except by those who consider Russia to be historically a part of Europe. His analysis -- that Russia had no other choice, given its location, lack of resources, and weak society -- will be. If those who disagree can offer a counterargument as compact, vigorous, and accessible as Poe's, the rest of us will greatly benefit.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A significant success, February 6, 2004

By 

P. Prescott "missionofburma" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Russian Moment in World History (Hardcover)

Marshall Poe has achieved prominence as one of the finest empiricists studying early modern Russian history. In the current essay, weighing in at a mere one hundred and thirty breezy pages, Poe finds the seeds of the modern Russian crisis in the early modern period he knows so well. It is a fascinating premise which is certain to draw fire from many quarters. But what separates Poe's book from the myriad "explanations" of the demise of the Russian empire is that this meticulously crafted essay is the work of a first-rate (and sometimes brilliant) scholar. Highly recommended.

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This terrible piece of work is a big miss, January 5, 2006

By 

Daniel Carr - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Russian Moment in World History (Hardcover)

I feel a little strange writing a review of this book, as I got it as a present and feel that holiday pleasure-reads should not require academic work. However, the other reviews are so glowingly positive that a contrary view needs to be presented, to point out the book's many flaws. I actually came to the review section to laugh along at the other critical reviews of this book that I was sure would exist.

I found the arguments in this book to be lazy, poorly substantiated, and inconsistent. He makes flippant statements about 700 years of history, explains how his two points (geography of Russian territory and autocratic nature of Russian state) explain how history unfolded, and say that the result is a unique victory for the Russian tradition over European Imperialism. He points out that if Russia were really a part of Europe, it would look a lot more like Sweden. But it doesn't, so this is proof that Russia has a historical developent outside of the European tradition. Meanwhile, autocracy is behind the success of Russia, because it has remained independent since the 1600's, and other countries were not able to withstand the challenge posed by European imperialism - autocracy must have been the reason for that. He neglects to mention that Russia is the largest country in Europe and had a population much greater than any of the other empires there, and that its military sucesses relied on adopting European technology and administrative methods, and that it's military defeats throughout the last 70 years of its existence were probably avoidable. He never also explains how other nations that had roots outside of the European tradition (which I think means the Roman era, but I can't be sure because he doens't state it very clearly) managed to become succesful. All those Vikings he talks about early in the book...how did they end up as Scandinavian kingdoms, and a member of the Russian community? As with so many things in this book, he brings up elements of history only to discard them when they don't fit into his chosen narrative.

Another example of Poe's confusing reasoning is that the Bolshevik revolution is really a continuation of the Russian "moment in history," yet the revolution caused by the end of the Cold War signals an end to it. Why these revolutions had such conflicting impacts on Russia's role in the world is not explained - we're supposed to just accept these truths to be self-evident. The role of ideology is ignored, and his explanation for popular support of communist government changes from an understanding that autocracy was obsolete, to a belief that property rightfully belonged to all people, to the fact that there wasn't popular support for communism (pg. 75-79) His argument is so simplistic and poorly articulated that I found it really surprising to find it in print.

As for the provocative nature of the book alluded to by other reviewers...Poe's comments reach for bombasticism in their comment about the errors and "mystical politico-religious beliefs" of essentially every other author to write about Russia's relationship with Europe, but his venom is weakly substantiated - again, we're so simply go along with the story he's spinning, without support from such minor details such as critical analysis of facts.

I wish I'd made notes as I read through this, I could have made a note every page or two if I'd bothered to collect every nitwit comment, confusing statement or self-righteous blather in this book. My opposition to this book is not based on my disagreement over certain parts of his argument - I don't disagree with everything he says, and the themes of autocracy and Russian involvement in European affairs are definitely important topics in this subject. It's really the quality of the writing and of the reasoning that irks me. At 140 pages it's a fast read, but not a worthwhile one. I'm fairly confident most people would agree with my analysis of the shabbiness of this work; if you like, read it for yourself and find out. But I'd prefer it if you just didn't ever bother in the first place, because it's a waste of time and money.

First off, the quick and shallow overview of Russian history skips over many facts and developments. The only part of this condensed history that I found decent was the early ethnography of the Slavs, which is also the era of history I'm least familiar with. Perhaps it's as filled with lazy