Knowingo
Try 7 days free
The cover of The icon and the axe; an interpretive history of Russian culture

The icon and the axe; an interpretive history of Russian culture

Billington, James H

How did Russian culture take shape over six hundred years, caught between holy visions and hard earthy life?

Get the app Read on the web

At a glance

Author
Billington, James H

Why read it

  • You will stop reading Russia through simple contrasts, since its holy images served charlatans and its axes served saints and artists
  • You will understand why Russia has argued again and again over its relation to the West
  • You will understand why Russians kept arguing over the meaning of their history and their place in the world

Who it is for

  • Readers puzzled by Russia who want its cultural roots
  • Students of literature, art or religion wanting context
  • Travelers and news followers who want deeper background

Contents

  1. PREFACE
  2. BACKGROUND
  3. Background
  4. 1. Kiev
  5. 2. The Forest
  6. Axe and Icon
  7. Bell and Cannon
  8. THE CONFRONTATION
  9. The Early Fourteenth to the Early Seventeenth Century
  10. 1. The Muscovite Ideology
  11. 2. The Coming of the West
  12. Novgorod
  13. “The Latins”
  14. “The Germans”
  15. The Religious Wars
  16. THE CENTURY OF SCHISM
  17. The Mid-Seventeenth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century
  18. 1. The Split Within
  19. The Theocratic Answer
  20. The Fundamentalist Answer
  21. The Great Change
  22. 2. The Westward Turn
  23. New Religious Answers
  24. The Sectarian Tradition
  25. The New World of St. Petersburg
  26. The Defense of Muscovy
  27. THE CENTURY OF ARISTOCRATIC CULTURE
  28. The Mid-Eighteenth to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
  29. 1. The Troubled Enlightenment
  30. The Dilemma of the Reforming Despot
  31. The Fruits of the Enlightenment
  32. The Alienation of the Intellectuals
  33. Novikov and Masonry
  34. The Frustration of Political Reform
  35. 2. The Anti-Enlightenment
  36. Catholics
  37. Pietists
  38. Orthodox
  39. The Legacy
  40. 3. The “Cursed Questions”
  41. The Flight to Philosophy
  42. The Meaning of History
  43. The Prophetic Role of Art
  44. The Missing Madonna
  45. The “Hamlet Question”
  46. ON TO NEW SHORES
  47. The Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
  48. 1. The Turn to Social Thought
  49. 2. The Agony of Populist Art
  50. 3. New Perspectives of the Waning Century
  51. Constitutional Liberalism
  52. Dialectical Materialism
  53. Mystical Idealism
  54. THE UNCERTAIN COLOSSUS
  55. The Twentieth Century
  56. 1. Crescendo
  57. Prometheanism
  58. Sensualism
  59. Apocalypticism
  60. 2. The Soviet Era

More books like this