'By the Banks of the Neva'
'By the Banks of the Neva'
This 1996 book offers a fascinating investigation into the lives and careers of the British in eighteenth-century Russia and, more specifically, into the development of a vibrant British community in St Petersburg during the city's first century of existence as the new capital of an ever-expanding Russian empire. Based on an extremely wide range of primary sources from Britain and Russia, the book concentrates on the activities of the British within various fields such as commerce, the navy, the medical profession, science and technology, and the arts and ends with a broad survey of travellers and of travel literature, much of which is nowadays completely unknown. Also included are many attractive and unusual illustrations which help to demonstrate the variety and character of Russia's British community.
- Makes a valuable contribution to the social history of an important and unusual expatriate community
- Contains a wide range of subject matter
- Includes new textual and illustrative material
Reviews & endorsements
"...full of revealing detail and lively anecdotes about social gaffes and cultural clashes." Matthew Reisz, London Review of Books
"...this book makes use of a great variety of resources, including various archives." W.G. Moss, Choice
"Cross has written a book which will be useful and fascinating to many....we have here a most impressive piece of scholarship which does fulfill most of the aims which Cross had in writing it." Roger L. Emerson, Canadian Journal of History
"This is at once the book on the subject and a major study of cultural and technical transfer....written primarily for professional historians, it has much to offer other readers." Jeremy Black, History
"The volume is gracefully written as well, surely a bonus these days, and handsomely, almost impeccably produced...." Slavic Review
"This is a most impressive and scholarly work by the recognized world expert in the field of British-Russian contacts in the eighteenth century. Anthony Cross demonstrates convincingly the extent and diversity of the British community in Russia." Janet Hartley, The International History Review
"This book is a rich source for the history of court culture and patronage, particularly during the reign of Catherine the Great. Specialists in Russian history will find this book an invaluable reference source; non-Russianists will be able to make fruitful comparisons for their own work on subjects suach as material culture, expatriate communities, military history, cultural production, government-sponsored modernization, and competing `enlightenments'. ...this is a work of prodigious scholarship and unquestioned accomplishment that gives us the first comprehensive study of the lives, careers, and interconnections of a group uniquely important in Russia's development." Brenda Meehan, American Historical Review
"This is a work of truly remarkable scholarship!" Canadian Slavonic Papers
Product details
August 2007Paperback
9780521039031
492 pages
244 × 170 × 25 mm
0.78kg
44 b/w illus.
Available
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Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Note on Russian dates
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. The colony by the banks of the Neva
- 2. Factory matters and 'the honourable of the Earth'
- 3. 'In Anglorum templo': the English Church and its chaplains
- 4. 'Doctors are scarce and generally Scotch'
- 5. 'Sur le pied anglais': shipbuilders and officers in the Russian navy
- 6. 'Necessary foreigners': specialists and craftsmen in Russian service
- 7. Masters of the Arts
- 8. 'Out of curiosity': tourists and visitors
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index.
