The jurist and philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, and his lesser-known brother, Samuel, equally talented but as a naval architect, engineer and inventor, had a long love affair with Russia. Jeremy hoped to assist Empress Catherine II with her legislative projects. Samuel went to St Petersburg to seek his fortune in 1780 and came back with the rank of Brigadier-General and the idea, famously publicised by Jeremy, of the Inspection-House or Panopticon. The Bentham Brothers and Russia chronicles the brothers’ later involvement with the Russian Empire, when Jeremy focused his legislative hopes on Catherine’s grandson Emperor Alexander I (ruled 1801-25) and Samuel found a unique opportunity in 1806 to build a Panopticon in St Petersburg – the only panoptical building ever built by the Benthams themselves.
Setting the Benthams’ projects within an in-depth portrayal of the Russian context, Roger Bartlett illuminates an important facet of their later careers and offers insight into their world view and way of thought. He also contributes towards the history of legal codification in Russia, which reached a significant peak in 1830, and towards the demythologising of the Panopticon, made notorious by Michel Foucault: the St Petersburg building, still relatively unknown, is described here in detail on the basis of archival sources. The Benthams’ interactions with Russia under Alexander I constituted a remarkable episode in Anglo-Russian relations; this book fills a significant gap in their history.
Praise for The Bentham Brothers and Russia
‘…this volume, based on an unparalleled reading of archival sources, is a splendid achievement that is likely to serve for the foreseeable future as the definitive account of the Bentham’s Russian exploits.’
The Journal of Comparative Law
‘This book will best serve as a compendium for historians and others interested in further exploring Anglo-Russian relations; policymaking, economics, law, architecture, society, and culture under Alexander I; and international business and finance.’
Ab Imperio
‘This work offers essential elements for understanding the place occupied by Russia, through the possibilities opened up by Russian imperial construction in the respective careers of Samuel and Jeremy Bentham.’
Revue d’études benthamiennes
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List of figures
List of abbreviations
Technical matters
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 Jeremy Bentham and Imperial Russian codification
3 Samuel Bentham’s Second Visit to Russia: the Admiralty mission of 1805–7
4 The St Petersburg Panoptical Institute or Okhta College of Arts
5 Samuel Bentham: the final years
6 Epilogue
Appendix I: Letters
Appendix II: Descriptions of the St Petersburg Panopticon
Bibliography
Index
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Roger Bartlett is Emeritus Professor of Russian History in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL. After postgraduate studies in Oxford and Moscow, he taught at Keele University before moving to London, and has held visiting positions at Cornell, Harvard, Marburg, Nottingham, Paris (EHESS) and Riga. His publications range across the social, economic and cultural history of Imperial Russia. His special research interests include serfdom and the peasant question, the impact of the Enlightenment, the role of foreigners in Imperial Russia and cultural interactions with other nations.
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