Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia

Between 1899 and 1911, student strikes and demonstrations disrupted Russia’s higher educational institutions. The universities marched to their own peculiar tempo, however, and it was not until the strike of 1905 that student unrest coincided with mass movements outside the academic world. Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia, the first comprehensive study of the student movement during the waning decades of tsarist rule, centers on the interplay among student protest, faculty politics, and government policy toward the universities. The author examines the changing responses of students, faculty, and government officials to the crisis of the university and the old regime, throwing new light on the chronic political and social instability of the tsarist system. Kassow’s familiarity with source material and his use of narratives from participants and observers alike provide both a trenchant analysis and a lively portrait of the times. Original and incisive, this book will be welcomed not only by specialists in the Russian field, but also by anyone interested in the dynamics of student protest and the role of the intellectual in popular movements.