Murder Most Russian: True Crime and Punishment in Late Imperial Russia

FAIN: FA-55061-10

Louise McReynolds
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)

My project takes a selection of sensational murders that shook late imperial Russia, and uses them as windows through which to view how notions of crime and punishment intersected with other cultural, social, and political issues. Chronologically, my work spans 1864-1914, years highlighted by rapid industrialization and political and social upheaval. This study is fully comparative with western scholarship, which allows me to illustrate that these murders [were] "most Russian" because the issues they raised reflected upon a culture that was autocratic and Orthodox Christian, yet one being pressured from within and without to adapt to western notions of modernity, especially as characterized by "rule of law."

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Murder Most Russian: True Crime and Punishment in Late Imperial Russia (Book)
Title: Murder Most Russian: True Crime and Punishment in Late Imperial Russia
Author: Louise McReynolds
Abstract: [From book cover] How a society defines crimes and prosecutes criminals illuminates its cultural values, social norms, and political expectations. In Murder Most Russian, Louise McReynolds draws on a fascinating series of murders and subsequent trials that took place in the wake of the 1864 legal reforms enacted by Tsar Alexander II.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780801451454
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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