The first primary source I chose is The Englishwoman in Russia Impressions of Society and Manners. This source was published in 1855, so is a little bit late for the time period of our class. The author is anonymous, listed simple as “a lady” with the additional information that she has lived in the country for ten years. I couldn’t find much more information on her, and the edition of the source I found has no introduction or notes, and, in her article, O’loughlin simply refers to her as “a lady” as well. I do think that she is probably either Protestant or non-religious of a Protestant background from her extremely negative descriptions of Russian religious practices, especially icons. However, I need to do some more research on the author.
The account was published during the time of the Crimean War, and the author is extremely conscious of this fact and explicitly references the conflict between England and Russia several times, though if she had been resident in Russia for ten years, then she began living there before the start of the war. The hostility between England and Russia perhaps influenced the fact that her tone is decidedly condescending and negative. As Hodgen states, despite her emphasis on her longer residence and deeper knowledge than brief visitors, “she finds almost everything in Russia disappointing.” She also engages in the discourses of “savage” versus “civilized” and also “antiquity” mentioned in the Hodgen article (also, the discourse of “East” vs “West” already emerges in her language). She reserves the term “Savage” mostly for native peoples of Russia, though she describes both lower class Russians and native peoples using animal imagery. The states unequivocally that upper class Russians are not truly “civilized,” but I do not think this equates to savagery. Upper class Russians are somewhere in an in between realm for this English lady.
As to possible research directions, I was interested by her attitude toward religion and her focus on the religious practices of Russians. I was thinking that this could be related to the rhetoric of religion and the (ostensible) protection of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire surrounding the Crimean War. Also, this could be interesting in relation to Enlightenment ideals, and how that influences what qualifies as a “civilized” society. I am thinking specifically of a passage in the very beginning of the account that describes crosses erected by Russian peasants. She states “I felt cheered by this sign of a belief and church that we (because we are happily more enlightened) are too apt to condemn; yet our ancestors to whom the Russians, in their present state may be compared did not find it an useless symbol to awaken sentiments of religion in their breasts.” I found this interesting because it positions Russians in the past, in “antiquity,” and also involves Enlightenment ideals, placing religiosity and "enlightenment" in opposition, or at least being very critical of religion.
Another possible direction would be the idea of law and order, what ideas about law and order the author brought with her, and how this relates to the discourse of “savage vs civilized” as well. She placed a lot of emphasis on describing the failings of the Russian police (even including some very sordid, probably untrue (?), anecdotes), and she discussed at length the system of government spying on the people. The theme of law and order could also possibly be related back to the Crimean War or the idea of “modernization” of societies in general.
There’s really a lot going on in this source. I found it extremely interesting and there are a lot of different ways to approach it. I think I will start with finding out more about the author/the historical context, since I wasn’t able to find that much so far and I don’t have much background in English history.
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