XI International Conference of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia
10th-14th July 2023
Stanislav Tarasov (independent scholar), “Noble Honour and Human Monarch in Late Eighteenth-Century Russia”
This paper explores the gradual development of the concept of noble honour as more personal and considerable based on the humanisation of the monarch. From Muscovite times onward, the nobility’s honor was external. It was based on social status and emanated from the tsar, the most honorable member of the polity, who had the power to reward and punish his servitors. Despite Peter I’s attempts to adopt European models to inculcate a sense of personal honor, the Russian elites persisted in relying on royal favors and external recognition even in the late eighteenth century. Such dependence on the monarch produced the phenomena of personal ambition and “seeking honors.” At the same time, the slowly ongoing desacralization of the royal office resulted in the increased focus on the monarch’s ability to rule the domain properly, especially visible in the printed culture. The nobility’s continuous alienation from the corrupt court and attention to the flawed humanity of their rulers elicited not only latent critique but also introspection into the personal dignity of an individual, making a noble sense of honour more internal.
