The major long-term project for this course is a research paper based on a primary source. Below are links to lists of primary sources that would be ideal for your research paper.
Collections of Documents and Sources (18th Century)
Important Fiction with a Political Edge
Women’s Letters and Memoirs (and Other Writings)
Dukes, Paul, ed. Russia under Catherine the Great: Catherine the Great’s Instruction (Nakaz) to the Legislative Commission, 1767. Oriental Research Partners, 1977. ISBN: 9780892501069.
— — —. Russia under Catherine the Great: Select Documents on Government and Society. Oriental Research Partners, 1978. ISBN: 9780892501045. (This is an anthology of sources, so you would have to put together a set that makes some common point.)
Putnam, Peter, ed. Seven Britons in Imperial Russia, 1698–1812. Andesite Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781376216837.
Raeff, Marc, ed. Plans for Political Reform in Imperial Russia, 1730–1905. Prentice Hall, NJ, 1966. ISBN: 9780136794158. (Excerpts from various reform attempts. Examine one or two comparatively.)
— — —. Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology. Humanities Press and Harvester Press, 1978. ISBN: 9780391009042.
Richardson, William. Anecdotes of the Russian Empire: In a Series of Letters, Written, a Few Years Ago, from St. Petersburg. W. Strahan, and T. Cadell, 1784.
Segel, Harold E. The Literature of Eighteenth-Century Russia: A History and Anthology, Volume I and Volume II. E.P. Dutton, 1967.
Bruce, Peter Henry. Memoirs of Peter Henry Bruce, Esq. a Military Officer, in the Services of Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain. Containing an Account of his Travels. J. and R. Byrn, 1783.
Collyer, A. D., ed. The Despatches and Correspondence of John, Second Earl of Buckinghamshire, Ambassador to the Court of Catherine II of Russia, 1762–1765, Vol. 1. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1900. *
— — —. The Despatches and Correspondence of John, Second Earl of Buckinghamshire, Ambassador to the Court of Catherine II of Russia, 1762–1765, Vol. 2. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902. *
* (These volumes are long, so read selectively.)
Crull, Jodocus. The Antient and Present State of Muscovy: Containing a Geographical, Historical and Political Account of All Those Nations and Territories Under the Jurisdiction of the Present Czar. A. Roper and A. Bosvile, 1698.
— — —. The Present Condition of the Muscovite Empire, Till the Year 1699: In Two Letters: The First from a Gentleman who was Conversant with the Muscovite Ambassadour in Holland; the Second from a Person of Quality at Vienna, Concerning the Late Muscovite Embassy, His Present Czarish Majesty; the Russian Empire; and Great-Tartary. With the Life of the Present Emperour of China, by Father J. Bouvet, missionary; by the Author of The Patient and Present State of Muscovy. F. Coggan, 1699.
Gustav III, King of Sweden. The Danger of the Political Balance of Europe. Translated by Hervey Redmond Morres, 2nd Viscount Mountmorres. Graisberry & Campbell, 1790.
Harris, James. Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, Containing an Account of His Missions to the Courts of Madrid, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Second, and the Hague and His Special Missions to Berlin, Brunswick, and the French Republic, Vol. 1. Edited by James Howard Harris. R. Bentley, 1844.
— — —. Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, Containing an Account of His Missions to the Courts of Madrid, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Second, and the Hague and His Special Missions to Berlin, Brunswick, and the French Republic, Vol. 2. Edited by James Howard Harris. R. Bentley, 1844.
— — —. Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, Containing an Account of His Missions to the Courts of Madrid, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Second, and the Hague and His Special Missions to Berlin, Brunswick, and the French Republic, Vol. 3. Edited by James Howard Harris. R. Bentley, 1844.
— — —. Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, Containing an Account of His Missions to the Courts of Madrid, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Second, and the Hague and His Special Missions to Berlin, Brunswick, and the French Republic, Vol. 4. Edited by James Howard Harris. R. Bentley, 1844.
Tolstoi, Peter. The Travel Diary of Peter Tolstoi: A Muscovite in Early Modern Europe. Translated by Max J. Okenfuss. Northern Illinois University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780875801308. (Diaries of Peter the Great’s envoy in Europe, the one who lured Aleksei back to Russia to meet his fate. These diaries date from the end of the 17th century.)
Wallace, Donald Mackenzie, Sir. Russia. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. ISBN: 9781977634047. (Account by an insightful foreign observer, fluent in Russian.)
Weber, Friedrich C. Present State of Russia (Russia through European Eyes). Routledge, 1968. ISBN: 9780714615448. (This is long! Read selectively.)
Whitworth, Charles, Baron. An Account of Russia as It Was in the Year 1710. Strawberry-Hill, 1758.
Chernyshevsky, Nikolai. What Is to Be Done? Translated by Michael R. Katz. Annotated by William G. Wagner. Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780801495472. [Preview with Google Books]
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Devils. Penguin Classics, 1954. ISBN: 9780140440355.
Gogol, Nikolai. Dead Souls. Translated by George Reavey. W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. ISBN: 9780393952926.
— — —. Inspector and Other Plays. Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 2000.
Kantor, Marvin. Dramatic Works of D.I. Fonvizin. Peter Lang International Academic, 1974. ISBN: 9783261014252. (Satirical plays by one of the leading playwrights of eighteenth-century Russia. Quite amusing reading.)
Lermontov, Mikhail. A Hero of Our Time. Translated from the Russian by Vladimir Nabokov in collaboration with Dmitri Nabokov. Overlook Press, 2009. [Preview with Google Books]
Radishchev, A. N. A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Translation by Leo Wiener. Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Roderick Page Thaler. Harvard University Press, 1958. ISBN: 9780674485501.
Turgenev, Ivan. A House of Gentlefolk. Translated by Constance Garnett. Macmillan, 1916. (Brilliant characterization of provincial noble life, noble-peasant relations.)
— — —. Fathers and Sons. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. ISBN: 9781530481934.
Bulgakov, Mikhail. A Country Doctor’s Notebook. Translation and introduction by Michael Glenny. Melville House, 2013. ISBN: 9781612191904. [Preview with Google Books]
Chekhov, Anton. The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin. Translated by Luba and Michael Terpak. Introduction by Robert Payne. Washington Square Press, 1967.
Dimsdale, Thomas, Baron. Thoughts on General and Partial Inoculations: Containing a Translation of Two Treatises Written When the Author was at Petersburg,…Also Outlines of Two Plans: One, for the General Inoculation of the Poor in Small Towns and Villages. The Other, for the General Inoculation of the Poor in London, and Other Large and Populous Places. By the Honourable Baron Thomas Dimsdale. William Richardson, 1776.
Aksakov, Sergei. A Family Chronicle: Childhood Years of Bagrov Grandson. Raduga Publishers, 1984. ISBN: 9780785509318.
— — —. A Russian Gentleman. Translated by J. D. Duff. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. ISBN: 9781537336428.
Annenkov, P. V. The Extraordinary Decade: Literary Memoirs. Edited by A.P. Mendel. University of Michigan Press, 1968.
Barratt, Glynn R. Voices in Exile: The Decembrist Memoirs. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1974. ISBN: 9780773501836.
Berdyaev, Nikolas. Chapters 1–9 in Dream and Reality: An Essay in Autobiography. Macmillan, 1951. (Memoir of a famous philosopher.)
Bonnell, Victoria E., ed. The Russian Worker: Life and Labor Under the Tsarist Regime. University of California Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780520048379. [Preview with Google Books] (Rare insights into working-class life from selections from memoir material by Russian workers.)
Cross, Anthony. Engraved in the Memory: James Walker, Engraver to the Empress Catherine the Great and his Russian Anecdotes. Berg Publishers, 1993.
Custine, Marquis de. Journey for Our Time: The Journals of the Marquis de Custine. Edited by Phyllis Penn Kohler. Introduction by Walter Bedell Smith. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007. ISBN: 9780548448335.
— — —. Letters from Russia. Translated by Robin Buss. Penguin Books, 2014. ISBN : 9780141394510. (Important account by a French traveler.)
Freeze, Gregory L. From Supplication to Revolution: A Documentary Social History of Imperial Russia. Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780195043594.
Gorky, Maxim. My Childhood. Translated with an introduction by Ronald Wilks. Penguin Classics, 1991. ISBN: 9780140182859. [Preview with Google Books] (First section of the autobiography of the famous writer. There are several different translations and editions.)
Gurko, Vladimir Iosifovich. Features and Figures of the Past: Government and Opinion in the Reign of Nicholas II. Stanford University Press, 1939.
Haxthausen, August von. Studies on the Interior of Russia. Edited and with an introduction by S. Frederick Starr. Translated by Eleanor L.M. Schmidt. University of Chicago Press, 1972. ISBN: 9780226320229. (Important account of Russian customs and practices by scholarly foreign agronomist.)
Herzen, Alexander. Childhood, Youth and Exile. Translated by J. D. Duff. Introduction by Isaiah Berlin. Oxford University Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780192815057.
— — —. From the Other Shore, Translated from the Russian by Moura Budberg, and The Russian People and Socialism, Translated from the French by Richard Wollheim. Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780192812681.
Kokovtsov, Vladimir Nikolaevich. Out of My Past: The Memoirs of Count Kokovtsov, Russian Minister of Finance, 1904–1914; Chairman of the Council of Ministers, 1911–1914. Edited by H. H. Fisher. Translated by Laura Matveev. Stanford University Press, 1935.
Kropotkin, Peter. In Russian and French Prisons. Introduction by George Woodcock. Black Rose Books, 1991. ISBN: 9780921689980.
Maklakov, V. A. The First State Duma: Contemporary Reminiscences. Indiana University, 1964.
Manstein, C. H. von. Contemporary Memoirs of Russia: From the Year 1727 to 1744. Routledge, 1968. ISBN: 9780714615400. [Preview with Google Books]
Nikitenko, Aleksandr. Diary of a Russian Censor: Aleksandr Nikitenko. Abridged, edited and translated by Helen Saltz Jacobson. University of Massachusetts Press, 1975. ISBN: 9780870231520.
Pipes, Richard. Karamzin’s Memoir on Ancient & Modern Russia: A Translation & Analysis. University of Michigan Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780472030507. [Preview with Google Books] (Fascinating, opinionated history of Russia by a turn-of-the-century monarchist. Insightful introduction.)
Pobedonostsev, Konstantin Petrovich. Reflections of a Russian Statesman. Translated by Robert Crozier Long. Grant Richards, 1898.(Memoirs of Alexander III’s arch-conservative teacher and adviser.)
Rieber, Alfred J., ed. The Politics of Autocracy: Letters of Alexander II to Prince A. I. Bariatinskii, 1857–1864. De Gruyter Mouton, 2019. ISBN: 9783111208503. [Preview with Google Books]
Snow, George E. The Years 1881–1894 in Russia-A Memorandum Found in the Papers of N.Kh. Bunge: A Translation and Commentary. American Philosophical Society, 1981. ISBN: 9780871697165.
Steinberg, Mark D., and Vladimir M. Khrustalev. The Fall of the Romanovs. Yale University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780300070675. (Letters of Nicholas II & Alexandra.)
Tolstoy, Leo. Childhood, Boyhood and Youth. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. Oxford University Press, 1957.
Trotsky, Leon. Chapters 1–28 in My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography. Pathfinder Press, 1626.
Witte, Sergei Iur’evich. The Memoirs of Count Witte. Translated and edited by Sidney Harcave. Routledge, 1990. [Preview with Google Books] ISBN: 9780873325714. (Memoirs of important reformer of the early 20th century.)
Zelnik, Reginald E., trans., and ed. A Radical Worker in Tsarist Russia: The Autobiography of Semen Ivanovich Kanatchikov. Stanford University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780804713313. [Preview with Google Books]
Belliustin, I. S. Description of the Clergy in Rural Russia: The Memoir of a Nineteenth-Century Parish Priest. Translated with an interpretive essay by Gregory L. Freeze. Cornell University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780801417962. [Preview with Google Books] (Superb source on the state of the church, spiritual life, and rural Russia.)
Engelgardt, Aleksandr Nikolaevich. Aleksandr Nikolaevich Engelgardt’s Letters from the Country, 1872–1887. Translated and edited by Cathy A. Frierson. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780195076219.
Gorshkov, Boris B., ed. A Life Under Russian Serfdom: The Memoirs of Savva Dmitrievich Purlevskii, 1800–1868. Central European University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9789637326158.
MacKay, John, trans., and ed. Four Russian Serf Narratives. University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780299233747. [Preview with Google Books]
Rostislavov, Dmitrii Ivanovich. Provincial Russia in the Age of Enlightenment: The Memoir of a Priest’s Son. Translated and edited by Alexander M. Martin. Northern Illinois University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780875802855.
Tian-Shanskaia, Olga Semyonova. Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia. Edited by David L. Ransel. Indiana University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780253207845. [Preview with Google Books] (Ethnographer’s grim account of the backwardness of the countryside.)
Gordon, Patrick. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries: A.D. 1635–A.D. 1699. The Spalding Club, 1859. (Buddy of Peter the Great, leading general.)
Keith, James. A Fragment of a Memoir of Field-Marshal James Keith Written By Himself, 1714–1734. Edinburgh, 1843.
Korb, Johann Georg. Diary of an Austrian Secretary of Legation at the Court of Czar Peter the Great, Vol. 1. Translated by Count MacDonnell. Franklin Classics, 2018. ISBN: 9780342644209.
— — —. Diary of an Austrian Secretary of Legation at the Court of Czar Peter the Great, Vol. 2. Translated by Count MacDonnell. Palala Press, 2015. ISBN: 9781341178641.
— — —. Scenes from the Court of Peter the Great: Based on the Latin Diary of John G. Korb, a Secretary of the Austrian Legation at the Court of Peter the Great. Edited by Dr. F.L. Glaser. N.L. Brown, 1921.
Muller, Alexander V., trans. and ed. The Spiritual Regulation of Peter the Great. University of Washington Press, 1972. ISBN: 9780295952376.
Perry, John. The State of Russia, under the Present Czar. Benjamin Tooke, 1716.
Pososhkov, Ivan. The Book of Poverty and Wealth. Edited and translated by A.P. Vlasto and I.R. Lewitter. Stanford University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780804713610. (Interesting thinker on social and economic events of early 18th century.)
Shafirov, P.P. A Discourse Concerning the Just Causes of the War Between Sweden and Russia: 1700–1721. Oceana Publications, 1973. ISBN: 9780379001624. (Rather dull work but with important implications on diplomatic history by close adviser of Peter I.)
Berdyaev, Nikolas. The Russian Idea. Andesite Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781376214499.
Chicherin, B.N. Liberty, Equality, and the Market: Essays by B.N. Chicherin. Edited and translated by G.M. Hamburg. Yale University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780300072327. [Preview with Google Books]
Herzen, Alexander. My Past and Thoughts. University of California Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780520042100. [Preview with Google Books]
Lavrov, Peter. Historical Letters. Edited and translated by James P. Scanlan. University of California Press, 1967. ISBN: 9780520011366.
McNally, Raymond T., and Richard Tempest, eds. Philosophical Works of Peter Chaadaev. Springer, 2012. ISBN: 9789401053969. [Preview with Google Books]
Nechayev, Sergei. “The Catechism of the Revolution.” In Apostles of Revolution. Edited by Max Nomad. Collier, 1961.
Rozanov, V. V. Fallen Leaves: Translated from the Russian. Mandrake Press, 1929. (Odd work by religious conservative with idiosyncratic views.)
Shcherbatov, M. M. On the Corruption of Morals in Russia. Edited and translated with an introduction and notes by A. Lentin. Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780521105248. (Reactionary monarchist, proto-Slavophile account by 18th-century polemicist.)
Shragin, Boris, and Albert Todd, eds. Landmarks: A Collection of Essays on the Russian Intelligentsia—1909. Translated by Marian Schwartz. Routledge, 1977. ISBN: 9780918294005. (Important essays by the Vekhi group of mystical-religious-political thinkers in the late imperial period.)
Solovyev, Vladimir. Lectures on Godmanhood. Dennis Dobson, 1948. ISBN: 9780234770474.
— — —. Russia and the Universal Church. Translated by Herbert Rees. Centenary Press, 1948.
Stepniak, S. The Career of a Nihilist: A Novel. Walter Scott, 1889. (The pseudonym of S.M. Kravchinskiĭ.)
— — —. King Stork and King Log: A Study of Modern Russia, Volume I. Downey & Co., 1896.
— — —. King Stork and King Log: A Study of Modern Russia, Volume II. Downey & Co., 1896.
— — —. The Russian Peasantry: Their Agrarian Condition, Social Life and Religion. Harper & Brothers, 1888.
— — —. The Russian Storm-Cloud, or, Russia in her Relations to Neighbouring Countries. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1886.
— — —. Underground Russia: Revolutionary Profiles and Sketches from Life. Preface by Peter Lavroff. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892.
Tolstoy, Leo. Tolstoy’s Writings on Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence. Peter Owen, 1968. ISBN: 9780720687019.
Za sto let (1800–1896) Sbornik po istorii politicheskikh i obshchestvennykh dvizheniĭ v Rossii. In two parts: Compiled by V. L. Burtsev, with the editorial participation of S. M. Kravchinsky (Stepniak). Facsimile Publisher, 2015.
Cracraft, James, ed. For God and Peter the Great: The Works of Thomas Consett, 1723–1729. Columbia University Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780914710905.
Levshin, Platon, Metropolitan of Moscow. The Present State of the Greek Church in Russia; Or a Summary of Christian Divinity. Translated by Robert Pinkerton. Edinburgh, 1814.
Prokopovich, Feofan, Archbishop of Novgorod. Peter the Great: His Law on the Imperial Succession in Russia 1722: The Official Commentary (Pravda Voli Monarshei.) Edited and translated with an introduction and notes by Antony Lentin. Plantagenet Press Ltd., 1996. ISBN: 9781873041277.
Amanat, Abbas. “‘Russian Intrusion into the Guarded Domain:’ Reflections of a Qajar Statesman on European Expansion.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 113, no. 1 (1993): 35–56.
Atkinson, Lucy. Recollections of the Tatar Steppes and Their Inhabitants. John Murray, 1863.
Beisembiev, Timur K., trans., and ed. The Life of ʻAlimqul-A Native Chronicle of Nineteenth Century Central Asia. Routledge, 2015. ISBN: 9781138862333.
Bell, James Stanislaus. Journal of a Residence in Circassia During the Years 1837, 1838, and 1839, Volume I. Edward Moxon, 1840.
— — —. Journal of a Residence in Circassia During the Years 1837, 1838, and 1839, Volume II. Edward Moxon, 1840.
Bell, John. A Journey from St. Petersburg to Pekin, 1719–22. Edinburgh University, 1965.
Bryce, James. Transcaucasia and Ararat: Being Notes of a Vacation Tour in the Autumn of 1876. Macmillan, 1877.
Coxe, William. Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America to which are Added, the Conquest of Siberia, and the History of the Transactions and Commerce between Russia and China. T. Cadell, 1780.
— — —. Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, Interspersed with Historical Relations and Political Inquiries. Palala Press, 2016. ISBN: 9781354932209.
Joubert, Carl. The Truth about the Tsar and the Present State of Russia. Eveleigh Nash, 1905. (Largely about the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.)
Muraviev, Nikolai. Journey to Khiva through the Turcoman Country: 1819–20. Foreign Department Press, 1871.
Nefedkin, Alexander K. Warfare of the Chukchi (Mid-17th to Early 20th Century). Translated by Richard L. Bland. U.S. Department of the Interior, 2014.
Orbach, Alexander, and John Klier. “The Pogroms of 1881–1882,” and “The Response from St. Petersburg Jewry.” In Perspectives on the 1881–1882 Pogroms in Russia. Russian and East European Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh, 1984.
Paksoy, Hasan B., ed. Central Asian Monuments. Isis Press, 1992. ISBN: 9789754280333.
Pallas, Peter Simon. Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire in the Years 1793 and 1794, Volume I. T. N. Longman & O. Rees, etc., 1802.
— — —. Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire in the Years 1793 and 1794, Volume II. T. N. Longman & O. Rees, etc., 1803.
— — —, Robert Johnston, and William Miller. Views of 18th Century Russia: Costumes, History, Customs. Portland House, 1990. ISBN: 9780517699492.
Portnoy, Samuel A., trans., and ed. The Memoirs of Vladimir Medem: The Life and Soul of a Legendary Jewish Socialist. Ktav Pub & Distributors Inc., 1979. ISBN: 9780870683329.
Sanders, Thomas, Ernest Tucker, and Gary Hamburg, trans., and eds. Russian-Muslim Confrontation in the Caucasus: Alternative Visions of the Conflict Between Imam Shamil and the Russians, 1830–1859. Routledge, 2010. [Preview with Google Books] (Includes Tolstoy’s Hadji Murat, and The Shining of Daghestani Swords in Certain Campaigns of Shamil (Selected Passages), by Muhammad Tahir al-Qarakhi).
Sparks, Jared. Memoirs of the Life and Travels of John Ledyard: From His Journals and Correspondence. Henry Colburn, 1828. (On this source: Gray, Edward G. “Visions of Another Empire: John Ledyard, an American Traveler Across the Russian Empire, 1787–1788.” Journal of the Early Republic 24: no. 3 (2004): 347–80.)
Turkestan Album. Prints and Photographs Reading Room, The Library of Congress. (The album provides “a visual survey of Central Asia from the perspective of the Russian imperial government that took control of the area in the 1850s and 1860s. About 1,200 photographs, with some architectural plans, watercolor drawings, and maps, are arranged in four parts.")
Urussov, Serge Dmitrievich. Memoirs of a Russian Governor: Prince Serge Dmitriyevich Urussov. Translated by Herman Rosenthal. Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1908. (Account includes descriptions of anti-Jewish pogroms in Moldavia.)
Vygodskaia, Anna Pavlovna. The Story of a Life: Memoirs of a Young Jewish Woman in the Russian Empire. Translated and edited by Eugene M. Avrutin and Robert H. Greene. Northern Illinois University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780875806716. [Preview with Google Books]
By Catherine II
Correspondence of Catherine the Great when Grand Duchess with Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams and Letters from Count Poniatowski. Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1928.
Memoirs of the Empress Catherine II, Written by Herself. Trübner & Co., 1859.
Catherine II’s Charters of 1785 to the Nobility and the Towns (The Laws of Russia. Series II, Imperial Russia, Vol. 289). Translated and edited by David Griffiths and George E. Munro. Charles Schlacks, Jr. Pub., 1990. ISBN: 9789990413724.
Catherine the Great’s Instruction (Nakaz) to the Legislative Commission, 1767. Edited with a new introduction, bibliography, and newly translated sections by Paul Dukes. Oriental Research Partners, 1977. ISBN: 9780892501069.
Love & Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin. Edited and translated by Douglas Smith. Illinois University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780875806075.
Two Comedies by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia: Oh, These Times! and The Siberian Shaman. Translated and edited by Lurana Donnels O’Malley. Routledge, 1998. ISBN: 9789057550232. [Preview with Google Books]
Documents of Catherine the Great: The Correspondence with Voltaire and the Instruction of 1767 in the English Text of 1768. Edited by William Fiddian Reddaway. Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107694859. [Preview with Google Books]
Memoirs of Catherine the Great. Edited by Katherine Anthony. Alfred A. Knopf, 1926.
Catherine the Great: Treasures of Imperial Russia from the State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. Edited by Isabella Forbes and William Underhill. Gingko Press, Inc., 1993. ISBN: 9780904866926.
Miscellaneous
Dashkova, Ekaterina. The Memoirs of Princess Dashkov. Translated and edited by Kyril FitzLyon. John Calder, 1958. (Friend of Catherine II. Lots of court gossip and politics. Includes letters by Catherine II.)
Dolgorukaja, Natal’ja Borisovna. The Memoirs of Natal’ja Borisovna Dolgorukaja. Translated by Charles Edward Townsend. Slavica Publishers, Inc., 1977. (Short memoir with lots of commentary. Very interesting insider’s account of political power and disgrace.)
Golovina, V. N. Memoirs of Countess Golovine, a Lady at the Court of Catherine II. Translated from the French by G. M. Fox-Davies. David Nutt, 1910.
Vigor, Mrs. William. Letters from a Lady, Who Resided Some Years in Russia, to Her Friend in England. J. Dodsley, 1777. (Court news from a British woman in Russia, 1730–1739.)
Breshko-Breshkovskaia, Ekaterina Konstantinovna. Hidden Springs of the Russian Revolution: Personal Memoirs of Katerina Breshkovskaia. Stanford University Press, 1931. (Memoir of a populist.)
Bisha, Robin, Jehanne M. Gheith, et al. Russian Women, 1698–1917: Experience & Expression—An Anthology of Sources. Indiana University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780253215239. [Preview with Google Books] (Lots of short excerpts—a little fragmentary.)
Broido, Eva L’vovna. Memoirs of a Revolutionary. Translated and edited by Vera Broido. Oxford University Press, 1967. ISBN: 9780192111777.
Clyman, Toby W., and Judith Vowles, eds. Russia Through Women’s Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist Russia. Yale University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780300067538. [Preview with Google Books]
Durova, Nadezhda. The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars. Translated by Mary Fleming Zirin. Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780253205490. (Account by a woman who dressed as a man and fought in the Napoleonic Wars.)
Figner, Vera. Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Introduction by Richard Stites. Northern Illinois University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780875805528.
Kovalevsky Sonia, and A.C. Leffler (Edgren). Sonia Kovalevsky: Biography and Autobiography. I. Memoir, by A. C. Leffler (Edgren) Duchessa Di Cajanello. II. Reminiscences of Childhood, Written by Herself. Translated into English by Louise Von Cossel. Macmillan, 1895. (Kovalevskaia was a prominent Russian mathematician from a leading academic family. She studied and worked abroad, but her childhood memoir concerns Russian intellectual life.)
Labzina, Anna. Days of a Russian Noblewoman: The Memories of Anna Labzina, 1758–1821. Translated and edited by Gary Marker and Rachel May. Northern Illinois University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780875805894.
The Marchioness of Londonderry, and H.M. Hyde, eds. The Russian Journals of Martha and Catherine Wilmot: Being an Account by Two Irish Ladies of Their Adventures in Russia as Guests of the Celebrated Princess Daschkaw, Containing Vivid Descriptions of Contemporary Court Life and Society, and Lively Anecdotes of Many Interesting Historical Characters, 1803–1808. Macmillan, 1934.
