Pavel Milyukov - Essays on the History of Russian Culture
St Petersburg: published by the editorial office of the journal Mir Bozhii. Part I, 1896; Part III, first instalment, second edition, 1903. Printed by I. N. Skorokhodov.
St Petersburg: published by the editors of Mir Bozhii, printed by I. N. Skorokhodov. Parts I and II bound together, with Part III in a second matching volume. Mixed editions, including Part I, 1896, and Part III, first instalment, second edition, 1903. Russian text.
An early collection of Milyukov’s influential cultural history, published as the Russian Empire approached its final upheavals. Population, economics, religion, education, nationalism and public opinion form part of its examination of how Russian society and national identity developed. Statistical tables, charts and architectural illustrations accompany the text.
Milyukov’s significance extends beyond scholarship. A founder of the Constitutional Democratic Party, he became Foreign Minister in the Provisional Government of 1917. These volumes preserve the historical thinking of a man who would move from interpreting Russia’s past to participating in one of its decisive political turning points.
From the library of Martin Nicholson CMG (1937-2025), British diplomat, Kremlinologist and adviser to Margaret Thatcher on Soviet affairs. This provenance connects an important interpreter of Imperial Russia with a specialist who studied the Soviet state that succeeded it.
The matching period bindings feature brown spines, raised bands, gilt titles and richly patterned marbled boards. Moscow binder’s tickets identify A. P. Petzman, while a bookseller’s stamp records N. P. Karbasnikov. Both spines bear the unidentified gilt initials В. З.
