University of New Haven Digital Commons @ New Haven History Faculty Publications History 2-2006 Patterns of Civil Society in a Modernizing Multiethnic City: A German Town in the Russian Empire Becomes Estonian Bradley Woodworth University of New Haven,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.newhaven.edu/history-facpubs Part of the History Commons Publisher Citation Woodworth, B. D. (2006). Patterns of Civil Society in a Modernizing Multiethnic City: A German Town in the Russian Empire Becomes Estonian. Ab Imperio, 2006(2), 135-162. Comments © 2006 Ab Imperio. Posted with permission. Woodworth, B. D. (2006). Patterns of Civil Society in a Modernizing Multiethnic City: A German Town in the Russian Empire Becomes Estonian. Ab Imperio, 2006(2), 135-162.Journal website: http://abimperio.net/cgi-bin/ aishow.pl?state=index_eng&idlang=1 Ab Imperio, 2/2006 Bradley D. WOODWORTH PATTERNS OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE MODERNIZING MULTIETHNIC CITY: A GERMAN TOWN IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE BECOMES ESTONIAN Although modernization has long been a topic in the historiography of Russia, scholars have only recently applied the interpretive and heuristic category of civil society to Russia and the Russian Empire. Indeed, as long as the Russian Empire was viewed as an authoritarian and politically back- ward monolith, there was little reason to look for civil society – one could only expect to confirm its disappointing absence. But the weakening and collapse of authoritarian governments in eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s surprised us by revealing that even the most comprehen- sively controlling regimes may produce unexpected undercurrents of un- sanctioned popular organization.