ABSTRACT
In its broadest outlines, the evolution of historical writing in pre-Stalinist Russia can be understood as the function of two parallel processes: maturation and alienation. Like so much else in the imperial Russian historical experience, the history of historical writing reveals a record of ever-expanding sophistication and approximation of European standards. At the same time, the academic historians found themselves continually more isolated from the other social and ethnic groups in the empire and alienated from the very government that supported them. Nonacademic historians dealt with themes and adopted political and social interpretations that more closely reflected the point of view of the empire's diverse population. Limitations imposed by tsarist censorship and academic politics kept these perspectives from finding institutional homes in which they could be nurtured and from which they could be propagated. These factors placed an enduring imprint on the historical profession and historical writing in imverial Russia, and subsequently influenced Soviet historical practice as well.
