Civil rights in imperial Russia

the long version

This collective study of civil rights in Russia before the Revolution of 1917 challenges the conventioanl view, held by both Western and Soviet historians, that concepts of civil rights and the relationship of the individual to the state fell on barren soil in Imperial Russia. This collection of essays by specialists in diverse areas of Russian history reveals the true complexity of the issues surrounding civil rights before 1917. They offer new perspectives on familiar problems--freedom of speech and association, personal inviolability, equality before the law--and demonstrate the immediate relevance of the concept of civil rights to the study of Russian history, and of the Soviet Union today.