Russian Monarchy

Richard Wortman (PhD University of Chicago) is James Bryce Professor of History Emeritus at Columbia University. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, where he received his PhD, and at Princeton University. His two-volume study Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy (1995-2000), published by Princeton University Press, is devoted to the role of imagery and representation in the exercise of monarchical power in Russia. An abridged one-volume edition, Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy from Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II, was published in 2006.

“Wortman and the editors are to be commended for bringing together a coherent collection of essays that articulates Wortman’s important ideas on the tsarist monarchy’s public relations strategies and functions in public discourse. It distills Wortman’s deep knowledge of imperial governmental institutions and the great detail of his two-volume study Scenarios of Power into a single accessible volume.”