Output details

Armes Russland: Bettler und Notleidende in der russischen Geschichte vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart

The research was equivalent to that required to produce at least 5 articles. The word count is 78043. The research took 6 years and required multiple visits to archives and libraries in Russia and Finland. The book covers a period from the Middle Ages to the present, is methodologically highly innovative and it includes a vast array of different kinds of sources, ranging from medieval chronicles to nineteenth-century ethnography and post-Soviet anthropological field work, from poetry, literature, and newspapers, to police records, legal texts, and medical studies.

“Armes Russland” explores the realities and representations of poverty and begging in Russia from the Middle Ages to the present. Combining cultural and social history over the longue durée, it brings together sources ranging from medieval chronicles and theological tracts to nineteenth-century ethnography and post-Soviet anthropological field work, from poetry, literature, and newspapers, to police records, legal texts, and medical studies. Using social imagination as a conceptual frame, the book analyses contrasting perspectives, attitudes, and policies on beggars and the poor, but also illuminates their material living conditions and everyday lives.