Russia’s Eighteenth Century in Recent US Historiography

Eighteenth-century Russian studies in the US has witnessed a number of notable shifts over the past two decades, including a movement away from grand narratives and overdetermined teleologies, the emergence of new areas of concentration, new approaches to old questions, and-most significantly-the collapse of the Russia/West antinome in historiography. This article highlights five vectors in which some of the most original work is currently taking place: the multiplicity of blurred boundaries; the place and practices of religions and confessions (Russian Orthodox as well as others); empire as multi-peopled and as state formation; structures of society and lived experiences; and gender. Within each of them the field has seen a resurgence of source-based empirical research, as well as skepticism toward received wisdoms. There has also been a desire to look beyond the metropole and centers of power and to concentrate on experiences far removed from St.