Help at All Costs?: State, Community, and Individual Charity in the Late Nineteenth Century Romanov Empire

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores forms of charitable giving, aid, and relief efforts across three different vectors in the late imperial Romanov Empire, from state attempts to intervene in humanitarian crises and community efforts to mobilise for charitable objectives, right down to individual choices around almsgiving. Our three papers encompass some of the empire’s geographical diversity, spanning the South Caucasus, the Baltic provinces, and central Russian provinces, with the aim of generating a comparative discussion of charitable practices across different socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts. Together, we explore from the perspectives of our three different case studies why people chose to give charitable donations, the role of charitable giving in the social life of the empire, and the interplay between state and civil actors.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Barbara Alpern Engel, U of Colorado at Boulder

Papers

• '…To Soothe Their Suffering as Sons of Our Entire Fatherland Russia': Violence and Charity in the Imperial Southern Caucasus - Immo Rebitschek, U of Jena (Germany)

• Charitable Entertainment and Intra-Imperial Cultures of Giving in the Late Imperial Baltic Provinces - Catherine Gibson, U of Tartu (Estonia)

• 'The Sin Is on Him, if He Deceives Us': Motivations for Private Almsgiving in Russian Villages at the Turn of the Century - Sarah Badcock, U of Nottingham (UK)

Discussant

• Adele Lindenmeyr, Villanova U