By the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia, not known as a nation of joiners, had by rough estimate, ten thousand voluntary associations. Private associations, sanctioned by the government, entered the public realm with a breathtaking number and variety of missions and projects. Societies were everywhere—St. Petersburg and Moscow, the capitals of the non-Russian regions of the empire, the major provincial centers, and even small towns. The range of these groups included learned societies, smalltown charitable and agricultural societies, and clubs for recreation and sport. On the eve of World War I Russia had the largest number of cooperative...

To many educated Russians, European civil societies presented the idealized, successful “other”—successful states and successful societies—that failed in late-imperial Russia. As the following chapters will show, the legal status and political environment of Russian associations were precarious and to a great degree determined by an autocratic state and arbitrary officialdom. A budding Russian civil society lacked the support of imtermediary powers available in Europe. Yet certain social, cultural, and political circumstances favoring the development of successful civil societies and voluntary associations in Europe were complex and conflict ridden. As the institutional core of civil society, voluntary associations existed...

The public sphere and associations of civil society were the product of a fitful process that began in the age of “enlightened” absolutism under Catherine the Great (ruled 1762–1796) and her eldest grandson, Alexander I (ruled 1801–1825). Although it is customary to omit the “enlightened” when discussing the absolutism of Catherine’s youngest grandson, Nicholas I (ruled 1825–1855), and to focus on the repression of associations in the wake of the Decembrist revolt in 1825, in fact, the impulse to associate survived. Indeed, as will be discussed in this and the following chapter, formal associations continued to exist...

As early as the late eighteenth century, the mission of Free Economic Society was to serve and study the nation and empire. In the nineteenth century such a mission permeated many other Russian societies, including, as we have seen, the Moscow Agricultural Society. As is well known, educated Russians became obsessed with national identity and with Russia’s place in Europe and in history. They explored the realm and “discovered” the life of the common people. The origins of this interest in nation and empire lie in the influence of European, especially German, ideas and in the policies of “official nationality”...

During the course of the nineteenth century, more and more societies of science and natural history in Europe and the United States regarded their mission to be the popularization of knowledge of the natural world and the dissemination of scientific literacy, or what may be called “scientific capital.” The leaders of science societies wanted the educated population to have a direct experience of the natural world through observation and experiment and to reduce access costs to useful knowledge. Broadening the appeal of science and demonstrating that natural knowledge can make a better world validated the scientific enterprise and the scientists...

During the second half of the nineteenth century, authoritarian regimes of Central and eastern Europe spearheaded rapid industrialization to catch up to the early leader, Great Britain, and to compete for national prestige and great power status. The application of science to industry and the effort to absorb and generate industrial technology became critical components of the drive to maximize the most efficient allocation of material resources and to invest in native human capital. Government officials, employers, and technical specialists recognized that the dissemination of applied science and practical knowledge in a competitive era of more complex technology and increasing...

In his study of the critical role of networking in intellectual creativity, Randall Collins states, “Although lectures, discussions, conferences, and other real-time gatherings would seem superfluous in the world of texts, it is exactly these face-to-face structures which are most constant across the entire history of intellectual life.”¹ Meetings of societies in general and congresses in particular are an example of such “face-to-face structures.” If the nineteenth century was the “age of associations,” it was also the age of congresses. Despite their importance to the development of the public sphere of civil society, congresses remain understudied. This is especially true...

Beginning in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Russian associations began a slow and halting growth. Many were ephemeral, but a few prominent learned societies survived periodic crackdowns under Catherine II, Alexander I, and Nicholas I. The era of the Great Reforms ushered in a time of rapid growth, and by century’s end Russia possessed the institutional core of civil society—a network of associations in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other major cities. But the development of civil society in Russia presents a paradox. On the one hand, associations and their works were all over the empire, acting with...