Ekaterina Pravilova is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and Director of the Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of the award-winning A Public Empire: Property and the Quest for the Common Good in Imperial Russia, as well as Legality and Individual Rights: Administrative Justice in Russia and Finances of Empire: Money and Power in Russian Policy in the Imperial Borderlands, published in Russian. She is a native of St. Petersburg.
Groundbreaking history of Russia - from empire to the Soviet era - viewed through the lens of its money. Important and timely in the face of recent events. * Frederick Studemann, Books to Read in 2023, Financial Times * This wonderfully intelligent, knowledgeable, and imaginative book on the ruble and financial policy fills an immense gap in our understanding of government, politics, and society in imperial Russia * Dominic Lieven, Trinity College, Cambridge University * The Ruble: A Political History is a magisterial account of the Russian currency as a tool of autocratic controlfrom Catherine the Great to the early Soviet times. Today, when the Russian imperialism is back and when Russian ruble is once again returning to nonconvertibility, Ekaterina Pravilovas book is more timely than ever. * Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po * Award-winning author Ekaterina Pravilova asks, 'Can money have a story?' As regards the Russian imperial ruble from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, she shows that most certainly it canand what a story it can tell about a country, an economy, and a society! Her deeply researched and sharply argued book demonstrates how repeated Russian governments deployed currency and financial resources as a tool of domestic rule and geopolitical competition. Yet her work also elucidates unexpected and important currents of both liberal and conservative thought not visible in other accounts. A valuable and important account for historians of Russian imperial history, broader European history, and economic history. * Peter Holquist, University of Pennsylvania *