Dr. Sergei Antonov

Biography

Sergei Antonov specializes in modern Russia from 1800, with a particular interest in the politics, culture, and society of the late imperial and early Soviet period (ca. 1850-1927). His research focuses on the history of Russian law, conceived broadly to include legislation, legal doctrines, and the ways legal norms and institutions impacted the daily practices of ordinary people, including both the rich and poor, as well as men and women. His book, 'Bankrupts and Usurers in Imperial Russia: Debt, Property, and Law in the Age of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy,' published by Harvard University Press in 2016, won the Ed Hewett Book Prize for outstanding publication on political economy in Russia, Eurasia, and/or Eastern Europe, awarded by the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies. This full-length history explores the culture of personal debt in Russia through close readings of previously unexamined court cases, arguing that informal personal debt was central to the imperial-era regime of private property, which in turn underpinned Russia’s social and political stability. Moreover, the culture of credit and private property was rooted in an efficient and vigorous legal culture and tradition, thus contradicting the commonly held view that Russian law was underdeveloped. His current research projects focus on the culture of crime and criminal justice in late imperial Russia and the legal regime of Russian serfdom. His research has been published by Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie and forthcoming in the Slavic Review and Law and History Review.

Research Interests

Experience