Russian social networks, public opinion, and intelligentsia identity in the first half of the nineteenth century

The dissertation argues that the Russian radical intelligentsia of the nineteenth century were the product of the sociable world of the early nineteenth-century nobility in ways that have not been fully appreciated. The dissertation moves away from the emphasis in earlier literature on alienation and psychology by examining the longstanding practices of sociability among Russia's nobles in city and country, practices that the intelligentsia appropriated and recast during the 1830's and 1840's in forging their own identity. Thus, while their new world-view stressed their moral alienation from the autocratic state and a passive civil society, the "circles" that formed the practical basis for that world-view stemmed directly from practices of sociability widespread in a noble culture they claimed to reject.; In addition to exploring the sociable practices of the nineteenth-century nobility, the dissertation considers the dilemmas over the proper means by which to conceptualize and act within a public in an autocratic society, and posits that these dilemmas provided a common context for all members of Russian society---not just members of the intelligentsia---who chose to ponder such challenges. In providing a context for noble sociability, the dissertation examines examples of hospitality and hosting dating back to the sixteenth century, and devotes attention to the institution of assemblies by Emperor Peter the Great, the tradition of the "open table" during the reign of Catherine the Great, accounts of foreigners resident in Russia and their evaluation of Russian manners, and assessments of the condition of the Russian public by those loyal to the regime.; The dissertation rethinks the founding mythology of intelligentsia identity and the scholarly literature that concretized the myth by reconsidering the literary roots through which the intelligentsia generated the myth and appropriated Russian sociable traditions as their own. The dissertation redefines the context of intelligentsia life in order to emphasize the practices of sociability.