Russia’s Cultural Thermometer: Imperial Balls at the Turn of the 20th Century

Abstract

This work presents a novel perspective of Russian galas and their role in constructing an authentically Russian imperial culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this time, imperial balls functioned as both displays of soft power and represented a testing ground for the re-introduction of “authentic” Russian culture. After the modernizing wave of the Petrine revolution and long nineteenth-century intellectual debates between Westernizers and Slavophiles, Russia was deeply entrenched in Euro-centric dress, culture, and etiquette. This work proposes that turn-of-the-20th-century balls represented a reconfiguring of “Russianness” and displayed the aristocracy\u27s internalized struggles for national identity. These articulations of Russian identity and culture were not only for domestic consumption but also for foreign audiences. By examining ball descriptions from foreign ball attendees, such as Théophile Gaultier, Maria Georgievna (Grand Duchess of Russia at the time), and Alexander Mikhailovich (Grand Duke to Nicholas II), “Russia’s Cultural Thermometer: Imperial Balls at the Turn of the 20th Century” contributes a fresh perspective on displays of aristocratic self-identification during the late Tsarist period