Drawing on archival studies, revisionist historians have taken issue with the traditional view that Tsar Paul I was mad and was assassinated because of the clear danger he posed to the state. Professor Ragsdale contends that the question of Paul's mental condition is not as simple as either his detractors or modern apologists suppose. In the first full-length study to be published outside Russia, the author places the subject in a wholly new perspective and offers some trenchant criticisms of traditional psychohistorical methods. He first describes the development of the personality of the Grand Prince in light of the conflicts between the European Enlightenment values that influenced his formal education and the social and political realities of eighteenth-century Russia. Professor Ragsdale next examines Paul's reign and the events surrounding his assassination, particularly the evidence suggesting that the conspirators planned beforehand to defame the Tsar's reputation as a means of justifying the deed. The next two chapters compare Paul's thinking and policies with those of other absolute sovereigns of the time and look at how mental illness was defined and treated in other instances of royal madness. The final chapter explores the question of the Tsar's mental condition in terms of twentieth-century psychological and psychiatric theory. A significant scholarly contribution, this book sheds light on an old controversy and provides some valuable new insights on the uses of psychology and psychiatry in the study of history.

Drawing on archival studies, revisionist historians have taken issue with the traditional view that Tsar Paul I was mad and was assassinated because of the clear danger he posed to the state. Professor Ragsdale contends that the question of Paul's mental condition is not as simple as either his detractors or modern apologists suppose. In the first full-length study to be published outside Russia, the author places the subject in a wholly new perspective and offers some trenchant criticisms of traditional psychohistorical methods. He first describes the development of the personality of the Grand Prince in light of the conflicts between the European Enlightenment values that influenced his formal education and the social and political realities of eighteenth-century Russia. Professor Ragsdale next examines Paul's reign and the events surrounding his assassination, particularly the evidence suggesting that the conspirators planned beforehand to defame the Tsar's reputation as a means of justifying the deed. The next two chapters compare Paul's thinking and policies with those of other absolute sovereigns of the time and look at how mental illness was defined and treated in other instances of royal madness. The final chapter explores the question of the Tsar's mental condition in terms of twentieth-century psychological and psychiatric theory. A significant scholarly contribution, this book sheds light on an old controversy and provides some valuable new insights on the uses of psychology and psychiatry in the study of history.

From Caligula to Stalin and beyond, this book offers a unique and pioneering look at the recurring phenomenon of the 'mad king' from the early centuries of the Christian era to modern times.

Alexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand duke by Catherine the Great, he ascended to the throne in 1801 after the brutal assassination of his father. In this magisterial biography, Marie-Pierre Rey illuminates the complex forces that shaped Alexander's tumultuous reign and sheds brilliant new light on the handsome ruler known to his people as "the Sphinx." Despite an early and ambitious commitment to sweeping political reforms, Alexander saw his liberal aspirations overwhelmed by civil unrest in his own country and by costly confrontations with Napoleon, which culminated in the French invasion of Russia and the burning of Moscow in 1812. Eventually, Alexander turned back Napoleon's forces and entered Paris a victor two years later, but by then he had already grown weary of military glory. As the years passed, the tsar who defeated Napoleon would become increasingly preoccupied with his own spiritual salvation, an obsession that led him to pursue a rapprochement between the Orthodox and Roman churches. When in exile, Napoleon once remarked of his Russian rival: "He could go far. If I die here, he will be my true heir in Europe." It was not to be. Napoleon died on Saint Helena and Alexander succumbed to typhus four years later at the age of forty-eight. But in this richly nuanced portrait, Rey breathes new life into the tsar who stood at the center of the political chessboard of early nineteenth-century Europe, a key figure at the heart of diplomacy, war, and international intrigue during that region's most tumultuous years.

The problem of madness has preoccupied Russian thinkers since the beginning of Russia's troubled history and has been dealt with repeatedly in literature, art, film, and opera, as well as medical, political, and philosophical essays. Madness has been treated not only as a medical or psychological matter, but also as a metaphysical one, encompassing problems of suffering, imagination, history, sex, social and world order, evil, retribution, death, and the afterlife. Madness and the Mad in Russian Culture represents a joint effort by American, British, and Russian scholars - historians, literary scholars, sociologists, cultural theorists, and philosophers - to understand the rich history of madness in the political, literary, and cultural spheres of Russia. Editors Angela Brintlinger and Ilya Vinitsky have brought together essays that cover over 250 years and address a wide variety of ideas related to madness - from the involvement of state and social structures in questions of mental health, to the attitudes of major Russian authors and cultural figures towards insanity and how those attitudes both shape and are shaped by the history, culture, and politics of Russia.

This reference work surveys the leaders of Russia and the Soviet Union- from Michael, the first Romanov tsar in 1613, through the creation and dissolution of the Soviet Union, to the present day President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. Chronologically arranged, these biographies paint a thorough yet succinct portrait of 30 leaders including discussion about the family and education of each ruler, important legislation, events, and wars under each leader's rule; and each leader's achievements and impact on Russia or the Soviet Union.

There is nothing new about the Russian conservatism Putin stands for, acclaimed writer Lesley Chamberlain argues. Rather, as Ministry of Darkness reveals, the roots of Russian conservatism can be traced back to the 19th century when Count Uvarov's notorious cry of 'Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality!' rang through the streets of Russia. Sergei Uvarov was no straightforward conservative; indeed, this man was at once both the pioneering educational reformer who founded the Arzamas Writers' Club to which Pushkin belonged, and the Minister who tyrannised and censored Russia's literary scene. How, then, do we reconcile such extreme contradictions in one person? Through Chamberlain's intimate examination of Uvarov's life and skilled analysis of Russian conservatism, readers learn how the many paradoxes that dominated Uvarov's personal and political life are those which, writ large, have forged the identity of conservative modern Russia and its relationship with the West. This fascinating book sheds new light on an often overlooked historical actor and offers a timely assessment of the 19th-century 'Russian predicament'. In doing so, Chamberlain teases out the reasons why the country continues to baffle Western observers and policymakers, making this essential reading both students of Russian history and those who want to further understand Russia as it is today.