The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their
Books.
The Political, Religious, Cultural, and Social Life of Russia's Imperial House
Case
4: War
Napoleon waking to
find Moscow in flames.
From Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borck,
Napoleon's erster Traum in Moskwa...
[Napoleon's First Nightmare in Moscow...]
(St. Petersburg, 1812). From the library of Tsarskoe
Selo. NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division.
Photographic Services & Permissions
Empires grow and maintain themselves through military
power. The Russian empire was in constant friction,
and sometimes full-scale war, with other expanding
continental (first the Tatars, the Polish-Lithuanian
State, the Swedes, Ottomans, Imperial France, and
Great Britain) and Far Eastern powers. Little wonder
that a main task of rulers was to further and preside
over this power; and the male members of the dynasty
had as their primary occupation to serve in the
army and navy, and to enhance the public image
of the empire's armed forces. Since the empire's
relationships with other powers depended largely
on its military strength, issues of foreign policy
were part of the dynasty's concern for its armed
forces.
In their libraries, therefore, members of the
imperial family allotted much room to books celebrating
Russia's past wars and, depending on the owner's
official military duties, depicting components
of the armed forces and the regulations governing
their appearance and activities.
Next Section: Case
5: Exploration
