The History of International Law in Russia 1647-1917

"Now this is not really a book to be read from cover to cover. This is such serious scholarship that it’s almost a work of art, to be held, consulted, dipped into. It is 750 pages long and if books were possessions, to own rather than read, this would have to be in your top five. It is an astonishing piece of work. It was translated by Professor Butler, one of great professors of Soviet law. He is truly prolific in terms of his books, commentaries and monographs in the field. And while Butler’s books include those in the mainstream of the subject ( Russian Law remains the leading academic work in the area), he has also translated and written on more specialised areas, including this work by Grabar.. It was published by Grabar at the dawn of the Soviet era and is a kind of anthology of all international law concerning Russia from 1647-1917. But this is a bio-bibliographical study of international law from a Russian perspective – as such it provides the reader with short biographies of every material international jurist, diplomat, adviser in the field during this period, covering the names of Peter the Great’s academicians, life histories of Catherine II’s diplomats, right up to the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nicolas II’s Russia. He covers the legislation, sure, but it’s the attention to the individuals that is so amazing. As Professor Butler notes, Grabar’s book is the “golden key” for international lawyers and diplomatic historians but he goes on to acknowledge that “for all its virtues the Russian edition is exceptionally difficult to use”, especially given the short-hand way that footnotes and citations are scattered and provided. As such, Butler has not only translated this work, but also independently verified literally thousands of the citations and locations, providing them in an accessible way and removing “ghost” references. In addition, he includes for the first time a more comprehensive biography of Grabar’s works drawn from the Tartu University archives. This may be one example where the translation is in fact an improvement on the original – or at least on the readability of the original! Well, I think the first message of Soviet law is that you can’t study law just from books. Soviet legislation was phenomenal – human rights, apartments for everyone, freedom to marry and divorce at will, guaranteed jobs, fixed prices… but then you walked through the magic curtain and found yourself in what was basically a gulag! There are a lot of dictatorial systems but this was one that people really believed in. That people still believe in! So, I think, you can’t just pick up legislation and read it or just switch on the TV. The onion needs to be peeled – you need to see how it worked in practice and all the books in this list do that.. The demise of the Soviet Union was the demise of a country underpinned by a concept, an ideology, an alternative vision – socialism. It was an evangelical empire posing questions about how best to manage an economy, the extent to which the state provides social welfare, the scope of human rights and the importance of the arts and science. That said, it was also an empire with a darker side. But since 1991 it seems like we have lost something when it comes to politics – lost the enthusiasm to debate about the bigger questions and to worry about whether there is a better alternative – ideology seems to be missing. The mere existence of the Soviet Union almost seemed to provide a counter ideological force that helped us to question and frame the nature of how we in the West choose to live. And the Soviets did it in a vaguely credible way – and so, while the battle for liberty was won in 1991, it seems that the nature of that liberty somehow misses now an important element of radical choice and debate that was posed by the Soviets."