Ambitious, colourful and richly detailed, this wide-ranging social history reveals the complexity of the social dynamics within Russia's vast multi-ethnic empire.

This is a major and wide-ranging survey of the social history of Russia from before Peter the Great right through to the post-Napoleonic era. Janet Hartley traces the significant developments of her multi-faceted subject, concentrating particularly on two major themes: the relations of society and the state and the relations between the different social groups that made up this 'Russian society'. Throughout she reveals the complexity of the social dynamics within Russia's vast multi-ethnic empire.