Dmitrii Ivanoich Rostislavov was a mathematician, teacher and social critic in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Translated into English for the first time, his observations on daily life reveal the cultural milieu and issues of his time. An acute observer, Rostislavov discusses social and ethnic relationships within his village as well as matters pertaining to education, law enforcement, religious practice and folk beliefs. An educated man, he participated in the development of rationalist, scientific habits of thought and the new concern for good manners, education and...

Dmitrii Ivanoich Rostislavov was a mathematician, teacher and social critic in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Translated into English for the first time, his observations on daily life reveal the cultural milieu and issues of his time. An acute observer, Rostislavov discusses social and ethnic relationships within his village as well as matters pertaining to education, law enforcement, religious practice and folk beliefs. An educated man, he participated in the development of rationalist, scientific habits of thought and the new concern for good manners, education and...