Defining the Russian People: Konstantin Arsen'ev and Russian Statistics before 1861

Most of the English-language works focus on the late Imperial period. See Darrow David W. , “The politics of numbers: Zemstvo land assessment and the conceptualisation of Russia's rural economy”, Russian review, lix (2000), 54–75; Johnson Robert E. , “Liberal professionals and professional liberals: The zemstvo statisticians and their work”, in Emmons Terence Vucinich Wayne S. (eds), The Zemstvo in Russia: An experiment in local self-government (Cambridge, 1982), 343–63; Starr S. Frederick , Decentralization and self-government in Russia, 1830–1870 (Princeton, 1972); Rich David Alan , The Tsar's Colonels: Professionalism, strategy, and subversion in late imperial Russia (Cambridge, MA, 1998); and Kingston-Mann Esther , “Statistics, social science, and social justice: The zemstvo statisticians of pre-revolutionary Russia”, in McCaffray Susan P. Melancon Michael (eds), Russia in the European context, 1789–1914: A member of the family (New York, 2005), 113–39.

On institutions, see: Val'skaia B. A. , “Ob ekonomiko-geograficheskom izuchenii Rossii Statisticheskim otdeleniem Ministerstva vnutrennikh del v 1835–1852 gg.”, Voprosy geografii, xxvii (1951), 294–316; and Ptukha M. V. , Ocherki po istorii statistiki v SSSR, ii (Moscow, 1959). On ideas: Druzhinin N. K. (comp.), Khrestomatiia po istorii russkoi statistiki (i storiia teoreticheskikh vzgliadov) (Moscow, 1963); Rabinovich P. M. , Voprosy istorii otechestvennoi statistiki (Moscow, 1972); Sviatlovskii V. , K istorii politicheskoi ekonomii i statistiki v Rossii (St Petersburg, 1906); Baranskii N. N. (eds), Ekonomicheskaia geografiia v SSSR: Istoriia i sovremennoe razvitie (Moscow, 1965); and Pashkov A. I. (eds), Istoriia russkoi ekonomicheskoi mysli, i/ii (Moscow, 1958).

Bourguet Marie-Noelle , Déchiffer la France: La statistique départementale à l'époque napoleonienne (Paris, 1988); Éric Brian, La mesure de l'état: Administrateurs et géomètres au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1994); and Patriarca Silvana , Numbers and nationhood: Writing statistics in nineteenth-century Italy (Cambridge, 1996).

See, for example: Frierson Cathy A. , Peasant icons: Representations of rural people in late nineteenth-century Russia (Oxford, 1993); and Kingston-Mann Esther , In search of the true west: Culture, economics, and the problems of Russian development (Princeton, 1999).

See, however, for the later period: Peter Holquist, “To count, to extract, and to exterminate: Population statistics and population politics in late imperial and Soviet Russia”, in Suny Ronald Grigor Martin Terry (eds), A state of nations: Empire and nation-making in the age of Lenin and Stalin (Oxford, 2001), 111–44.

Polunov Alexander , Russia in the nineteenth century: Autocracy, reform, and social change, 1814–1914 (Armonk, NY, 2005), 87–109, provides a useful overview of the historiography. See also Saunders David , “P. A. Zaionchkovskii: High society subversive”, Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian history, i (2000), 2000–81.

Raeff Marc , Understanding imperial Russia: State and society in the old regime (New York, 1984), 28, 31.

Ziablovskii E. F. , “Statisticheskoe opisanie Rossiiskoi imperii…”, in Druzhinin (comp.), Khrestomatiia (ref. 2), 67–77, p. 69.

Ibid., 74.

See Brown A. H. , “S. E. Desnitsky, Adam Smith, and the Nakaz of Catherine II”, in Lai Cheng-Chung (ed.), Adam Smith across nations: Translations and receptions of The Wealth of Nations (Oxford, 2000), 262–81; Alexandrin Glen , “Reception of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations in early Russia”, in Lai (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 10), 297–311; McCaffray Susan , “What should Russia be? Patriotism and political economy in the thought of N. S. Mordvinov”, Slavic review, lix (2000), 2000–96; and Anikin Andrei , “Adam Smith in Russia”, in Mizuta Hiroshi Sugiyama Chuhei (eds), Adam Smith: International perspectives (New York, 1993), 251–9.

Pypin A. N. , Obshchestvennoe dvizhenie v Rossii pri Aleksandre I (St Petersburg, 2001 [1908]), 127. See also McCaffray , op. cit. (ref. 10), passim.

Sviatlovskii , op. cit. (ref. 2), 45–55; Druzhinin , “Ot K. Germana do Iu. Iansona”, in Druzhinin , op. cit. (ref. 2), 11–14; and Pashkov , op. cit. (ref. 2), 96–116.

Pekarskii P. , O zhizni i trudakh Konstantina Ivanovicha Arsen'eva (St Petersburg, 1871), 2.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 4.

Pashkov , op. cit. (ref. 2), 99.

Val'skaia B. A. , “Karl Fedorovich German (1767–1838)”, in Baranskii (eds), op. cit. (ref. 2), 286–92, p. 286.

Ibid., 291.

Sviatlovskii V. V. , “Istoriia ekonomicheskikh idei v Rossii”, in Pokidchenko M. G. (eds), Istoriki ekonomicheskoi mysli Rossii (Moscow, 2003), 19–200, p. 118.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 5.

Pashkov , op. cit. (ref. 2), 102.

Ibid., 102.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 5.

Ibid., 5.

Pashkov , op. cit. (ref. 2), 100.

Ibid., 104.

In his memoirs, N. Grech explained the rift between Ziablovskii and Arsen'ev as the result of the latter's refusing to marry a relative of the former. See Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 9. The fact that Arsen'ev was developing in the mould of Balug'ianskii and Hermann rather than of Ziablovskii probably was also a factor.

Val'skaia B. A. , “Ob ekonomiko-geograficheskom izuchenii Rossii v pervoi polovine XIX veka”, Voprosy geografii, x (1948), 41–52, p. 42; and Raskin D. I. (eds), Vysshie i tsentral'nye gosudarstvennye uchrezhdeniia Rossii 1801–1917, ii (St Petersburg, 2001), 26.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 9. Balashev's name is sometimes spelled Balashov.

Ibid., 10. Hermann gave a similar reason for the decline of the statistical division in a report from 1828. See Val'skaia , op. cit. (ref. 28), 42–43.

Nikitin N. P. , “K.I. Arsen'ev i ego rol' v razvitii ekonomicheskoi geografii v Rossii”, Voprosy geografii, x (1948), 3–40, pp. 13–15.

Quoted in Pekarskii, op. cit. (ref. 13), 71.

Nikitin , op. cit. (ref. 30), 6.

Ibid., 29.

Ibid., 6.

Baranskii N. N. , “Konstantin Ivanovich Arsen'ev”, in Baranskii , op. cit. (ref. 2), 293–300, p. 296.

Smith Adam , The wealth of nations, Book II, chap. 3 deals with productive and unproductive labour; for Magnitskii , see Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 70. Magnitskii saw the spirit of “unbounded civil freedom, i.e. revolution!” in Arsen'ev's call for civil freedom and linked it to the spectre of the French Revolution (ibid., 71). David Christian has used Arsen'ev's classification to organize his presentation of pre-reform society. See Christian , Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, privilege and the challenge of modernity (New York, 1997), 39–67.

Smith Adam , The wealth of nations, Book II, chap. 3, paragraph 7.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 70.

Ibid., 70.

See Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 309–10.

Nikitin , op. cit. (ref. 31), 31.

Ibid., 30.

Ibid., 31.

Ibid., 8.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 26–27.

Oleinikov D. I. , “Konstantin Ivanovich Arsen'ev”, in Ianin V. L. (ed.), Otechestvennaia istoriia: Istoriia Rossii s drevneishikh vremen do 1917 goda, i (Moscow, 1994), 108.

Nikitin , op. cit. (ref. 31), 9.

Raskin , op. cit. (ref. 28), 49. Ptukha incorrectly notes it as the Council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ptukha, op. cit. (ref. 2), 362.

For the Council of the Minister, see Raskin , op. cit. (ref. 28), 22–23, for the Statistical Division, see Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 362.

See Raskin , op. cit. (ref. 28), 15–49.

Ibid., 49.

Mironos A. A. , Uchenye komitety i sovety ministerstv i vedomostv v XIX veke: Zadachy, struktura, evoliutsiia (Nizhnii Novgorod, 2000), 138–41.

Westergaard Harald , Contributions to the history of statistics (New York, 1968), 136–71. See also Porter Theodore M. , The rise of statistical thinking, 1820–1900 (Princeton, 1986), 26–39.

Westergaard , Contributions (ref. 53), 136–43.

Lincoln W. Bruce , Nicholas I: Emperor and autocrat of all the Russias (DeKalb, IL, 1989), 162.

Orlovsky Daniel , The limits of reform: The Ministry of Internal Affairs in imperial Russia, 1802–1881 (Cambridge, MA, 1981), 33.

Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 365.

Ibid., 364–5.

Patriarca , op. cit. (ref. 3), 30–33.

Woolf Stuart , “Statistics and the modern state”, Comparative studies in society and history, xxxi (1989), 588–604, p. 602.

Ibid.

Although the Plan was published anonymously, Val'skaia, op. cit. (ref. 2), 294 identifies Arsen'ev as the author.

Plan statisticheskikh rabot ministerstva vnutrennikh del (St Petersburg, 1835), 20–32.

Ibid., 33.

Ibid., 29–31.

Ibid., 3.

Ibid., 2, 34, 31, 19.

Herzen Alexander , My past and thoughts: The memoirs of Alexander Herzen, transl. by Garnett Constance (New York, 1973), 179.

Val'skaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 299.

Herzen , op. cit. (ref. 68), 180.

Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Arkhiv (RGIA), f. 1290, op. 1, d. 218, l. 226.

RGIA, f. 1290, op. 1, d. 222, l. 1.

RGIA, f. 1290, op. 1, d. 222, l. 9.

Herzen , op. cit. (ref. 68), 180.

Neupokoev V. G. , Gosudarstvennye povinnosti krest'ian Evropeiskoi Rossii v kontse XVIII — Nachale XIX veka (Moscow, 1987), 233.

Orlovsky , op. cit. (ref. 56), 39.

Cullen M. J. , The statistical movement in early Victorian Britain: The foundations of empirical social research (New York, 1975), 105–17. For an account of many provincial British statistical societies that faded away after they were established in the 1830s, see ibid., 119–33.

RGIA, f. 869, op. 1, d. 91, ll. 7–8.

Val'skaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 297.

RGIA, f. 1290, op. 1, d. 143, l. 22.

Val'skaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 299.

RGIA, f. 869, op. 1, d. 91, l. 5.

Val'skaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 299.

Ibid., 303.

Ibid., 303.

W. Bruce Lincoln argues that it was not Arsen'ev's progressive views “but his public statements on how statistical data should be applied to policy formations” that prompted Perovskii to choose Leks (In the vanguard: Russia's enlightened bureaucrats, 1825–1861 (DeKalb, IL, 1986), 118). Arsen'ev's plan is a clear example of the new society-oriented statistics, which the MVD rejected in favour of Leks's older cameral statistics. Arsen'ev's views on the use of statistics formed but a part of his larger vision of statistics as an instrument of glasnost', as Lincoln himself notes, ibid., 119. See also Kingston-Mann , op. cit. (ref. 1), 117 for a positive evaluation of Arsen'ev's commitment to improving society.

Valskaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 294.

Baranskii , op. cit. (ref. 36), 299. See also Valskaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 302. W. Bruce Lincoln incorrectly states that Arsen'ev was not a member of the Provisional Statistical Committee, thus downplaying Arsen'ev's influence on the committee (op. cit. (ref. 86), 118).

Valskaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 302.

Ibid., 302.

Lincoln , op. cit. (ref. 86), 54.

Ibid., 82.

Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 5.

Shishkin A. I. , “O zhizni i deiatel'nosti akademika Konstantina Ivanovich Arsen'eva”, Arsen'evskie chteniia, ii (2003), 1–7, p. 6.

Val'skaia , op. cit. (ref. 2), 306.

Ibid., 306.

Pekarskii , op. cit. (ref. 13), 58.

Ibid., 58.

Ibid., 59.

Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 326.

Pertsik E. N. , K. I. Arsen'ev i ego raboty po raionirovaniiu Rossii (Moscow, 1960), 91.

Arsen'ev Konstantin , Statisticheskie ocherki Rossii (St Petersburg, 1848), 417.

Patriarcha , op. cit. (ref. 3), 164.

Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 327.

Ptukha , op. cit. (ref. 2), 329.

Shishkin , op. cit. (ref. 94), 6.