Research Catalog

Title

Catherine the Great : a short history / Isabel De Madariaga.

Author

Madariaga, Isabel de, 1919-

Publication

New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, 2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 240 p. : ill., maps; 20 cm.

Summary

Ivan IV, 'the Terrible' (1533-1584) is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror - and for killing his own son - he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole. Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan's court, and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan's archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralysed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan's reign.

Series Statement

Yale Nota bene

Uniform Title

Yale Nota bene

Subject

• Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 1729-1796
• 1762-1796
• Empresses > Russia > Biography
• Russia > History > Catherine II, 1762-1796
• Russia > Kings and rulers > Biography

Genre/Form

• History
• Biographies

Note

• First ed. pub. 1990.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Catherine Seizes Power in the Russian Empire -- 2. Russian Society in 1762 -- 3. Catherine's First Years -- 4. First Turkish War -- 5. Crisis of the 1770s -- 6. Reform of Local Administration and of the Legal System -- 7. Armed Neutrality and the Annexation of the Crimea -- 8. Catherine's Influence on Russian Cultural Life -- 9. Catherine's Educational Policy -- 10. Catherine's Social Policy -- 11. How Catherine Governed -- 12. How the People Lived -- 13. War with Turkey and Sweden, and the Destruction of Poland -- 14. Catherine's Economic Policy -- 15. Catherine and the French Revolution -- 16. Catherine as Woman and Ruler.

ISBN

0300097220

OCLC

• 50017987
• SCSB-12040137

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library