Secret Madmen of the Russian Empire in the 18th Century

In recent decades, considerable attention has been paid to the phenomenon of madness in the social and humanitarian sciences. However, there have been virtually no significant works devoted to this topic in the context of the history of Russia in the modern era. Alexander Kamensky's book is one of the first studies to fill this substantial gap. The monograph is based on a collection of documents from the bodies of political investigation in the Russian Empire - the Preobrazhensky Order, the Office of Secret and Investigative Affairs, and its successor - the Secret Expedition of the Governing Senate. The author shows how attitudes towards mental illnesses changed throughout the 18th century, how their interpretations were revised, and how practices for dealing with the mentally ill were formed. The historian's focus is on the causes of mental illnesses, forms of their manifestation, and the reflection of historical events in the consciousness of the mentally ill. The study of investigative cases of more than three hundred men and women from different social strata who committed politically motivated offenses over the century allows the author to refine and correct several established historiographical positions regarding the work of state institutions and their attitudes towards madness, as well as to identify the peculiarities of Russian practices compared to those accepted in other countries of that time.