New Directions in Russian History: The 1

This semester’s colloquium focuses on new (and not-so-new) literature on the eighteenth century in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic and Black Sea regions, and Siberia. Problems that have attracted a growing international community of scholars include: economic development and corresponding intellectual currents such as mercantilism or physiocratism; language and translation, both in a literal sense and in terms of political concepts; natural resources and environmental issues; agricultural and industrial labor and peasant mobility; relations of church and state, sacred and secular, from the Spiritual Regulation to Catherine II’s secularization of church property; the court society and diplomatic representation, ceremony, and ritual; scientific expeditions and exploration of Siberia; the Seven Years’ War. Such questions transcend an older focus on the two “great” rulers and their reforms.