Features a number of pioneering essays by the internationally known Russian cultural historians Boris Uspenskij and Victor Zhivov. Focusing on several of the most interesting and problematic aspects of Russia's cultural development, these essays examine some of the key transformations of Russian cultural consciousness.

One of the most important studies ever published on eighteenth-century Russia. Victor Zhivov's study is an essential work on the genesis of modern Russian culture; the aim of this translation is to make it available to historians and students of the field.