Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:02:50.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Russia and the East: A Comparison and Contrast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Karl A. Wittfogel
Karl A. Wittfogel*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Discussion
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 1963 , pp. 627 - 643
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 B. O. lecture 20).

2 Ibid., IV, 71 (lecture 62).

3 Ibid., III, 7 (lecture 41).

4 Ibid., p. 9.

5 Ibid., 11, 217 (lecture 32).

6 Ibid., p. 208 (lecture 31). For a critical appraisal o£ Kliuchevsky's frontier argument. see Wittfogel, Karl A., Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1963 Google Scholar; paperbound ed.), pp. 22 ff.

7 Ibid., lecture 43).

8 Montesquieu, Baron de, The Spirit of the Laws, trans. Nugent, Thomas (New York, 1949), pp. 269 Google Scholar; see also pp. 68, 213, and 266.

9 Ibid., pp. 25 and 74. Montesquieu asserted that despotism was mitigated by such factors as the care for waterworks in China and Egypt (p. 274)—or through the good intentions of the government in Russia (p. 59). But he discussed the Russian state as an instance of despotic rule, and hinted at the persistence of “particular causes” that might again involve the Russians “in the very misery which they now endeavor to avoid” (p. 59).

10 Concerning simple, semi-complex, and complex subtypes of Oriental society and the effects of conquest on indigenous stratifications, see Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, pp. 230 ft. and 324 ff.

11 Jean, Bodin, The Six Bookes of a Commonweale, ed. McRae, Kenneth Douglas (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 201 ff.Google Scholar

12 II (Moscow, 1911), 510; cited in Richard, Hare, Pioneers of Russian Social Thought (London and New York, 1951), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

13 Maxime, Kovalewsky, Institutions politiques de la Russie, trans, from the English by Derocquigny, Mme (Paris, 1903), p. 43.Google Scholar

14 According to Dr. Spuler, the Mongols gave land as salary to government officials, generals, and soldiers “according to the sources in most, perhaps in all parts of the empire“; and he notes the occurrence of service land grants in Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, Sirwan, Mesopotamia, Qazwin, Sustar, and Horasan. Bertold, Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran (Berlin, 1955), p. 329.Google Scholar

15 Paul, Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis (New York, 1962), p. 117–20.Google Scholar

16 For references see Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, Chap. 9, and idem, “The Marxist View of China,” China Quarterly, Nos. 11 and 12 (July-Sept, and Oct.-Dec), 1962.

17 Max, Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: Grundriss der Sozialokonomik, Part III (Tubingen, 1921-22), p. 117 Google Scholar; cf. also Max, Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie (3 vols.; Tubingen, 1922), I, 319 Google Scholar, and Wirtschaftsgeschichte von Max Weber (Munich and Leipzig, 1923), p. 275.

18 See Karl A., Wittfogel, “The Marxist View of Russian Society and Revolution,” World Politics, XII, No. 4 (July, 1960), 504 Google Scholar, and Oriental Despotism, pp. 398 ff.

19 Karl Marx in New York Daily Tribune, June 25, 1853.

20 For Marx's and Engels’ statements on this point see Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, pp. 375-76; idem, “The Marxist View o£ Russian Society and Revolution,” op. cit., pp. 490 ff.

21 Kliuchevsky stated that the Mongol yoke had been “lying heavily on North-Eastern Russia for two and a half centuries (1238-1480).” …, lecture 26).

22 Karl A. Wittfogel and Fêng Chia-shêng, History of Chinese Society, Liao, American Philosophical Society, Transactions, XXXVI (Philadelphia, 1949), pp. 61 ff. a n d 367 ff.

23 Ibid., p. 659.

24 Bertold, Spuler, Die Goldene Horde (Leipzig, 1943), p. 423.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., p. 296.

26 Ibid., p. 268.

27 Arnold J. Toynbee, review of Oriental Despotism by Karl A. Wittfogel, American Political Science Review, LII (Mar., 1958), 197.

28 For the administrative practices of the masters of the Mongol Empire at that time see Erich, Haenisch, Die Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen(Leipzig, 1948), pp. 145 ff.Google Scholar; Yüan Shih, Po-na ed. (Shanghai), Chap. 2, pp. lb ff.; Chap. 121, p. 9a; Chap. 191, p. 2a.

29 The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1255-56, as Narrated by Himself, with Two Accounts of the Earlier Journey of John of Plan de Carpini, trans, from the L a t in and ed. William Woodville Rockhill (London, 1900), p p. 221 and 226.

30 Pelliot states that Sarai was founded in 1254 ( Paul, Pelliot, Notes sur I'Histoire de la Horde d'or, Paris, 1950, p. 142 Google Scholar), but Rubruck referred to Sarai as a n established fact, not a city that had been created only a few months before he visited the region in the fall of 1254 (The Journey of William of Rubruck …, pp. 258 ff).

31 Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, p. 267.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid. pp. 268-69, 416.

34 Ibid., p. 267.

35 J.C. Russell, Late Ancient and Medieval Population, American Philosophical Society, Transactions, XLVIII, Part 3 (1958), 129.

36 Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, pp. 208 ff.

37 For a stimulating reinterpretation of the character of Russia's pre-Kievan and Kievan society, see Imre Boba, “Nomads in the Formation of the Kievan State” (unpubl. doctoral diss., University of Washington, 1962).

38 Most scholars agree that, measured by the key criterion of a contractual lord-vassal relationship, Russia's pre-Mongol society was not feud al, although certain of its features may be considered quasi feudal or marginally feudal. For a survey of the various attempts to define these conditions see Marc Szeftel, “Aspects of Feudalism in Russian History,” in Feudalism in History, ed. Rushton Coulborn (Princeton, 1956), p. 181.

39 George, Vernadsky, The Mongols and Russia (New Haven, 1953), p. 335.Google Scholar

40 Ibid., p. 372.

41 Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran, pp. 319-20.

42 Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, p. 420. Irrigation works that in part had a Turkestan background and that may have been in existence before the arrival of the Mongols made it possible to grow vegetables, fruits, and some millet near the capital.

43 Ibid., pp. 296-97, 426-27, and 430; Die Mongolen in Iran, pp. 448-49.

44 lecture 31).

45 The Journey of William of Rubruck … , p. 94, n. 1.

46 Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, p. 31.

47 Yüan Shih, Chap. 3, p. 4b.

48 Nikon Chronicle, (St. Petersburg, 1841-1949), X, p. 142; Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, p. 333; cf. also M., Karamsin, Histoire de I'empire de Russie, trans. Thomas, St. and Jauffret, (11 vols.; Paris, 1819-26), IV, 91 and 94 Google Scholar.

49 E., Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources (2 vols.; London, 1910), II, 80.Google Scholar

50 Pelliot, op. cit., p. 49.

51 Nikon Chronicle, X, 141. Vernadsky, op. cit., p. 150, n. 40.

52 Wittfogel and Fúng, op. cit., p. 530.

53 Haenisch, op. cit., pp. 77-78. The Mongols learned the fundamentals of Chinese statecraft mainly from a sinicized Ch'i-tan, Yeh-lii Ch'u-ts'ai (see his biography in the Y üan Shih, Chap. 146).

54 The seeming exception, the Domesday Book, probably was inspired by Byzantine and Saracen administrative practices inherited and transmitted by the Norman conquerors of Sicily (Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, pp. 213-14).

55 , lecture 32).

56 Herberstein, Sigismund von, Notes upon Russia: Being a Translation of the Earliest Account of That Country Entitled Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii, trans, and ed. Major, R. H. (2 vols.; London, 1851-52), I, 95.Google Scholar

57 See references to Gautier, Lappo-Danilevsky, et al. in Epstein's notes to Staden, Heinrich von, Aufzeichungen iiber den Moskauer Staat, ed. Epstein, Fritz (Hamburg, 1930), p. 57.Google Scholar

58 The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, ed. Charles Henry Hull (Cambridge, Eng., 1899), I, 15; cf. pp. 34, 53.

59 Sir Jervoise Athelstane Baines, “Census,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.; 1910-11), V, 663.

60 Karl A. Wittfogel, “General Introduction,” History of Chinese Society, Liao, p. 31.

61 The Muscovite armies were centrally located and systematically organized bodies of fighters, each major detachment having a right wing, advanced and rear guard, and a left wing; , lecture 27). Fletcher was impressed neither by the order nor the valor of these forces ( Giles, Fletcher, “Of the Russe Common Wealth or Manner of Government by the Russe Emperour…,” in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1856, p. 77 Google Scholar). Similar criticism has been directed at the Byzantine armies, often without recognition of the fact that, despite their deficiencies, they often constituted a very effective military instrument because of their state-imposed cohesion (see Wittfogel and Feng, op. cit., pp. 536-37).

62 Spuler, Die Goldene Horde, pp. 412-13, and Die Mongolen in Iran, pp. 422-23; cf. Vernadsky, op. cit., pp. 127-28.

63 Herberstein, op. cit., I, 108-9; cf. II, 343 (, lecture 38).

64 Staden, who served Ivan IV from 1564 to 1573, had ample opportunity to observe its operations: “There are also postal stations definitely throughout the length and width [of the land] in which lived volunteers (freiwillige Leute) with very good horses so that one could come in six days from Moscow to any surrounding border or from the border to Moscow. One jamme or postal yard is separated from another by 20, 30, 40, 50 versts. The Jammen and postal stations annually cost the great duke quite a lot for maintenance….” Staden, op. cit., p. 59; see also pp. 13, 35, 75, 104, 107, 111, and 182.

65 (l'etrograd, 1918), pp. 262 ff.

66 See Staden, op. cit., pp. 9 ff. and 56 ff.; cf. Epstein's notes, pp. 221 ff. and 228 ff.

67 See James, Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (2nd ed., 2 vols.; New York, 1925), I, 368, 441, and 493.Google Scholar

68 Ibid., II, 368.

69 The estimate rests on statistical data given in Sergei, Prokopowitsch, “Über die Bedingungen der industriellen Entwicklung Russlands,” Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Suppl. X (1913), pp. 16 ff. and 22.Google Scholar

70 Lyashchenko, Peter I., History of the National Economy of Russia to the 1917 Revolution, trans. Herman, L. M. (New York, 1949), pp. 701–2 and 706.Google Scholar

71 For the mid-sixteenth century see Staden, op. cit., pp. 11 ft.; for the close of that century see Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 61 ft.

72 See Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism, pp. 75 ff.

73 (St. Petersburg, 1900), I, 157-58.

74 See Nicolai-on, Die Volkswirtschaft in Russland, trans. Georg Polonsky (Munich, 1899), pp. 142 ff.

75 August von, Haxthausen, Studien über die innern Zästande, das Volksleben und insbesondere die ländlichen Einrichtungen Russlands (3 vols.; Hannover and Berlin, 1847-52), III, 46–48.Google Scholar

76 Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (Princeton, 1961), p. 376. Cf. the Chinese notion that a wealthy family may become poor in three generations and wealthy again in another three—this last, it should be added, if a lucrative government position is attained.

77 op. cit., p. 126.

78 (Moscow, 1958—), IV, 383.

79 Ibid., XX, 101 ft.