The Old Regime

Richard Pipes (1923–2018) — professor of Russian history at Harvard University, one of the leading specialists in this field. He is widely known as the author of works that develop the view of Russia as a patrimonial society, where the system of property led to the formation of a distinct national culture. According to the author, the basic values of this culture are fundamentally different from the values of Western civilization. This collection includes several essays detailing the author's theory and covering a wide time span: from Russian life in the 16th century to the subculture of revolutionary underground movements of the 19th — early 20th centuries.