UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
BA Module Outline for 2013/14
Module Title: Monarchs and the Enlightenment in Russia and Central Europe
Module Coordinators: Professor Simon Dixon and Professor Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski
Module Code: SEHI3009/9009
Course Unit Value: 2.0
Course Prerequisites: none
Runs in (2013/14): Terms 1 and 2
Academic Level: Advanced
Weekly Contact Hours: 2
Compulsory for: no programmes
Pass required for:
Open to: Final-year SSEES History, UCL History and intercollegiate UoL History undergraduates, who have completed a Group 2 or UCL
advanced-level course in History, subject to timetable and resourcing constraints
Module Outline
‘The Enlightenment’ in France is most often associated with the philosophes – notably Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, d’Alembert, and
Rousseau – who were, more often than not, highly critical of the French monarchy and sometimes persecuted by the French state. Rightly
or wrongly, they were subsequently blamed for undermining the Ancien Régime. In Central Europe and Russia, however, ‘Enlightenment’
was usually promoted by monarchs in order to strengthen their states. In articulating ‘enlightened’ statements of intent and implementing
‘enlightened’ policies, they were cheered on by the same philosophes who often criticized the monarchy in France. Indeed, Voltaire and
Diderot even came to the provocative conclusion that under the rule of wise and ‘enlightened’ monarchs, the ‘light’ of reason and
toleration now shone from ‘the North’. This special subject (UoL Group 3 course) opens with a study of the eighteenth century’s most
influential work of political and social thought, Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws. It will then examine the impact of the ideas and language
of ‘the Enlightenment’ in the Russian Empire, the Prussian Monarchy, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
during the reigns of Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa and Joseph II, and Stanisław August Poniatowski. The course
will also analyse those monarchs’ ambiguous relationship with the philosophes and consider the applicability of the terms ‘enlightened
absolutism’ and ‘enlightened despotism’ in the specific social and religious contexts of those territories.
At the end of the module you should have fulfilled the following aims and objectives
Aims:

An examination, critically and in depth, of the political ideas of the Enlightenment and their impact in Russia and Central Europe
in the later eighteenth century.

A critical interpretation of sources, both primary and secondary, relating to the engagement of Russian and Central European
monarchs with the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Objectives:

Knowledge and understanding of a critical period of European history, including an appreciation of the complexity and diversity
of the impact of the Enlightenment in Russia and Central Europe.

An understanding of the major historiographical debates on ‘enlightened despotism’ with regard to Russia and Central Europe.

An enhanced ability to read primary and secondary sources in English translation or in English and to analyse and evaluate them
critically, in order to make informed judgements.

An enhanced ability to articulate ideas and arguments, verbally and in writing.

Experience in independently planning, researching and writing a major project.
Preliminary Reading
Derek Beales, Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Europe (London, 2005)
T. C. W. Blanning, Joseph II (Harlow, 1994); T. C. W. Blanning (ed.), The Eighteenth Century 1688-1815 (Oxford, 2000)
Maurice Cranston, Philosophers and Pamphleteers: Political Theorists of the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1986)
Simon Dixon, The Modernisation of Russia 1676-1825 (Cambridge, 1999); Simon Dixon, Catherine the Great (Harlow, 2001)
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1995)
H. M. Scott (ed.), Enlightened Absolutism: Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe (Basingstoke,1990)
Judith N. Shklar, Montesquieu (Oxford, 1987); Robert Wokler, Rousseau (Oxford, 1995)
Adam Zamoyski, The Last King of Poland (London, 1992)
Assessment Methods
Assessment Style: Coursework: 1 2000-2500 word essay, 2 1000-1250 word commentaries. Examination: 3 hour. 10,000 word dissertation.
Assessment Weighting: Coursework: 25%; examination: 75% of course unit 1 (SEHI3009); dissertation 100% of course unit 2 (SEHI9009)
Feedback
Coursework: Written feedback on assessed coursework. Verbal/written feedback on non-assessed coursework.
Examination: Students will be permitted access to markers’ comments on individual scripts and dissertations in line with the SSEES Policy
on Examination Feedback.