Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic by Katherine Bowers (review)

Russian legal consciousness and juridical objectivity during the nineteenth century a ‘glorious but tragic episode’, which foundered on ‘formidable and eventually insuperable obstacles’ (see Wortman, ‘Russian Monarchy and the Rule of Law: New Considerations of the Court Reform of 1864’, Kritika, 6, 1, 2005, pp. 145–70 [p. 147]). In her conclusion, Schur points to the reassertion of conscience over the rule of law as the ultimate Russian legal arbiter during most of the twentieth century: ‘the ultimate travesty’, as she writes, ‘of merciful justice’ (p. 152). Perhaps Shakespeare, Dostoevskii and Saltykov-Schedrin were correct to be wary of lawyers’ eloquence: Lenin was one, after all.