The Time of State-Building Discoveries: Governing techniques in health care and education

Ch. 9. P. 219–243.

Vishlenkova Elena

If we imagine that a society in its development moves towards a pre-selected point or a predictable visualization, then any part of the path that lies behind will be deemed incomplete and merely preparatory. What if this stretch is far from straight? Then the zigzagging path will seem deflected from the desired goal by concessions, reactionary advances, weak will or bad planning. Both personal wishes and historical evidence may push a historian of Alexandrine Russia to accept such logic of historical narrative and take the path of judgmental reasoning. The ideologues of Nicholas I’s reign – that is to say, everyone who set up its tasks and interests in the social sphere – indicated a breakaway from the previous practice of public administration.

Keywords: история Российской империи, history of medicine, история медицины, history of Russian Empire, management of education, государственное управление образованием, Emperor Alexander I, Император Александр I

In book

The Enigmatic Tsar and his Empire: Russia under Alexander I, 1801-1825

Berlin, Warsz., Brux., Oxford, Wien, NY, Bern, Mainz: Peter Lang, 2019.