Adele Lindenmeyr, PhD

Citizen Countess: Sofia Panina and the Fate of Revolutionary Russia

She was born into a wealthy aristocratic family and dubbed “Russia’s Jane Addams” for her passion for improving the lives of urban workers. She became the first woman in world history to hold a cabinet position, and the first political prisoner to face the Bolsheviks’ terrifying revolutionary tribunal. Countess Sofia Panina was one of the most remarkable women of the generation that made the Russian Revolution, and now her life story has finally been fully told.

Russian Home Front in War and Revolution, 1914-22: Book 1. Russia's Revolution in Regional Perspective

This book presents a series of essays from leading international scholars that expand our understanding of the Russian Revolution through the detailed study of specific localities. Answering the important question of how locality affected the revolutionary experience, these essays provide regional snapshots from across Russia that highlight important themes of the revolution. Drawing on new empirical research from local archives, the authors contribute to the larger historiographic debates on the social and political meaning of the Russian revolution as well as the nature of the Russian state. Russia s Revolution in Regional Perspective highlights several important themes of the period that are reflected in this volume: a multitudinal state, the fluidity of party politics, the importance of violence as a historical agent, individual experiences, and the importance of economics and social forces. We reconceptualize developments in Russia between 1914 and 1922 as a kaleidoscopic process whose dynamic was not solely determined in the capitals. Russia s Revolution in Regional Perspective is the first of four books comprising the volume Russia s Home Front in War and Revolution, 1914 22, which studies Russia s Home Front from the First World War through the Civil War. They are part of a broader centennial series on Russia s Great War and Revolution, 1914 22.

Volume 3: Russia's Home Front in War and Revolution, 1914-22: Book 2. The Experience of War and Revolution

This book presents original research by an international group of scholars on the social history of Russia across the period of World War I, the 1917 revolutions, and the Civil War. The essays document how the inhabitants of Russia s multinational empire mobilized in 1914 in response to the myriad demands of what many called the Second Patriotic War. They created ambitious new projects as well as adapting existing institutions to meet the military and social needs of total war, and increasingly cited their contributions to support claims for a greater political voice. As the authors demonstrate, the war offered unprecedented opportunities for engagement to groups previously on the margins of civil society, such as women and national minorities. The fall of the tsarist government in early 1917 reinvigorated the movement for social mobilization and renewal, now focused on advancing not only the war effort but also Russia s new democratic order. The sweeping changes of this period inspired patriotism, hope, and idealism in many on Russia s home front. But as this collection also shows, the violence, social disruption, and institutional breakdown produced by war and revolution damaged existing social networks and sowed anxiety, disillusionment, and despair. As revolution degenerated into civil war, Russians turned increasingly to devising strategies for survival. The editors of The Experience of War and Revolution hope that these innovative essays will encourage other scholars to study the social impact of total war and revolution, the grassroots mobilization of Russian society during this period, and the methods of adaptation and self-reinvention adopted by ordinary men and women in response to prolonged crisis.The Experience of War and Revolution is the second of four books in the volume Russia s Home Front in War and Revolution, 1914 22 . All four books constitute volume 3 of the broader centennial series on Russia s Great War and Revolution, 1914 22.

The Life of a Russian Woman Doctor: A Siberian Memoir, 1869-1954

The Life of a Russian Woman Doctor by Anna Bek (1869–1954) yields rich insights into the lives of a generation of Russian women who lived at a time of revolutionary change, extraordinary challenges, and unprecedented opportunities. Written in a lively and compelling style, Anna Bek’s memoir reveals not only the experiences but also the motives and values of women who sought education, independence, and self-sufficiency, the obstacles they encountered, and the influences of other women and men on their lives. This engrossing memoir also engages the special context of Siberian geography and history―the vast distances and isolation, the heterogeneous population of settlers, exiles, and convicts, the closeness and interdependence of families and communities, and the deep appreciation of nature. This book offers a rewarding excursion into Siberian social history and an intimate acquaintance with two exceptional individuals of great charm and courage―Anna Bek and her American editor, Anne D. Rassweiler.

Poverty Is Not a Vice

At the turn of the twentieth century, many Russians clung to the traditional belief that "poverty is not a vice" and that personal acts of generosity toward the poor, including beggars, earn spiritual salvation. Here Adele Lindenmeyr explores how this thinking--and opposition to it--shaped the development of private charity and public welfare in Russia from the eighteenth century to World War I. In recovering a long-forgotten aspect of Russian history, Lindenmeyr offers new insights into major issues debated by historians today: the development of a viable civil society in an autocratic state, the efficacy of central and local government, and Russians' complex reaction to Western ideas. Her book also provides fascinating background to the new flourishing of private charity in post-communist Russia. The first challenges to the ethos of personal charity came from Peter the Great. Influenced by the Western notion that poverty was a vice, he attempted a systematic approach to its eradication. Lindenmeyr traces the course of poor relief from the establishment of the first state welfare institutions to the post-emancipation devolution of responsibility for the needy to local authorities. At the same time, however, almsgiving still thrived, especially among the peasant estate, where personal acts of charity were preferred to a poor tax. Finally, the author shows how hundreds of privately founded charitable societies and institutions also emerged, reflecting educated society's increasing awareness of poverty as a social problem and contributing significantly to the public sphere.