In this study of nineteenth-century rural society, Smith-Peter examines the ways in which provincial elites in Russia tried to carve out a separate identity for themselves, drawing on Western ideas of “civil society,” particularly those of Smith and Hegel.1 The initiatives undertaken ranged from the formation of local societies to bolster trade and development to the establishment of local newspapers and public spaces like museums. The book creates an impression of lively regional subcultures within the empire, many of which have been largely overlooked by the historical literature. Smith-Peter also argues that these subcultures formed the basis for local political engagement—to differing ends—with the tsarist administration during the era of the great reforms, particularly the agrarian reform of the 1850s and 1860s.
Methodologically, this book is a kind of Kulturgeschichte. It relies primarily on primary and secondary texts related to various aspects of provincial politics, economy, and society,...