KREMLIN ON FIRE: 18TH CENTURY RUSSIA THROUGH THE TONGUES OF FLAME Cover Image

KREMLIN ON FIRE: 18TH CENTURY RUSSIA THROUGH THE TONGUES OF FLAME
KREMLIN ON FIRE: 18TH CENTURY RUSSIA THROUGH THE TONGUES OF FLAME

Author(s): Mikail PUŞKIN
Subject(s): Cultural history, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Social history, 18th Century
Published by: Namık Kemal Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi
Keywords: 18th century Russia; disaster investigation; Russian bureaucracy; Russian society and culture; civil and moral duty;

Summary/Abstract: Current research is an exploratory study investigating actions, socio-historical context and characters of bureaucrats in an emergency situation of Trinity Fire in Moscow of 1737. Microhistory approach is applied to analysis of primary sources: the interrogation reports produced by investigators over three years period following the disaster. These dry formal documents act as windows into lives, beliefs and lies of the bureaucrats and by proxy muscovite society of the times of Anna Ivanovna as a whole. The resulting analysis then not only investigates formal procedures and duties related to firefighting and civil service of the time, but provides commentary on how civil servants of various social standing positioned themselves with regards to religion, state and personal moral responsibility.

  • Issue Year: 7/2019
  • Issue No: 14
  • Page Range: 451-468
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English