Adele Lindenmeyr (author)Citizen Countess: Sofia Panina and the Fate of Revolutionary Russia

I very much enjoyed historian Adele Lindenmeyr’s Citizen Countess: Sofia Panina and the Fate of Revolutionary Russia and must admit how surprised I was at my lack of knowledge on the book’s central figure. After all, I currently teach an AP European History course to high school students and read quite a bit of modern Russian history. Lindenmeyr does a masterful job of not only charting Panina’s remarkable story but placing it adeptly in the context of the tumultuous history marking modern Russia. Furthermore, while writing a biographical work there can be a tendency for authors to become so close to their subject matter that it is possible to lose some of the critical lens on which historians depend. Lindenmeyr, however, never loses any ability to fairly analyze the Countess, as well as those individuals whose lives intersected hers. While her admiration for Panina shines through the work, the author is also very honest about the subject’s challenges and limitations. This can always be a challenge and Lindenmeyr accomplishes it wonderfully. In addition, I found the author’s ability to constantly “source” historical evidence is outstanding. Sourcing is a term we use in my AP European History course to remind students to constantly analyze factors beyond documents, including the historical situation, audience, purpose, point of view, etc… I guess after focusing for so many months on developing these skills for high school students and their essays, my “antenna” was a bit more sensitive in this area than usual. Therefore, I was extremely impressed with how richly and skillfully Lindenmeyr continually analyzed her historical evidence. In fact, I am going to pick out a few examples to show future students how a historian successfully accomplishes this within a compelling narrative work.To sum, Citizen Countess: Sofia Panina and the Fate of Revolutionary Russia is a truly outstanding work and a quite necessary one. It either introduces to us or, at the very least, supplements our collective knowledge of an important individual we all should know more about. Lindenmeyr’s work is both a smart academic read and a very entertaining one. In fact, I did not want to stop reading and was particularly fascinated by the chapters outlining Panina’s experience in the early days of the Bolshevik takeover (including her trial.) Of course, the book did make me sad to know that, with the onset of the Bolshevik takeover and consolidation of power after civil war, the Countess would never be able to fully carry out her dream of educating and empowering people of all social classes in Russia. At the same time, just knowing that someone like Sofia Panina existed only confirms my generally optimistic “glass is half full” view of humankind. For that I would like to thank author and historian Adele Lindenmeyr!

This book completely captured my attention. It’s all I’ve been reading for the last couple of days. On the surface this is the story of one human life, but what a life! Sofia Panina lived during one of the most tumultuous periods of class change in Russian history. And although Citizen Countess makes sure that her life is centerstage, the reader will leave this book with a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the Bolshevik Revolution. Too often, women have been marginalized by historians (who tend to focus on the people who look like them). As a relative novice to Russian history I entered the book with a certain naïveté, but I was swept away by the complex and thoroughly human depiction of this extraordinary person.I still have mixed feelings about her view of the world, but I became much more sympathetic as I grew to know her more. She lived on the cusp of great and revolutionary change. And somehow she seemed to have adapted to this changing landscape like water finding its way to the sea. This is not the story about someone who defied their lot and became exceptional and different from us. She was born exceptional but as the class floor dropped out from under her, she revealed the constancy of her spirit. Her fortitude in the face of her deteriorating station was amazing. But I don’t want to give the story away.On its face, it looks like an academic book. There are endnotes and a small index but the annotations are carefully chosen so as not to interrupt the narrative with intra-academic debate. There is not much of this debate anyway because Lindenmeyr is showing us Sofia’s life for the first time. And in this time of great change, we all deserve to know this countess citizen.

Dr. Lindenmeyr has written an inspiring biography of Countess Sophia Panina that will appeal to the academic historian as much as it appeals to the general reader. I loved visiting with Sophia each day and seeing Russia’s history of class, gender, service and politics through Sophia’s family, her life and her work. Sophia’s last years in the US had to be a great disappointment after having done so much in Russia to reform the political and social systems. Yet she continued to work and to serve the Liberal ideals and causes that defined her life. Review by C. Wheeland.

Good to know that such kind & philonthrophist aristocratic ladies existed in Russia