2021 Yuletide Promo Post

[crantz]

Welcome to the Fandom Promo post, everyone!

Here's where you get those eyes on your fandoms for sign ups!

Share what makes your Yuletide fandoms the shiniest and why you love them. A big part of Yuletide is how small our fandoms can be, and this is a good way to make sure other people know what gems there are out there!

Suggested form to use:

<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:
<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional)</b>:


(Bonus optional: What are you thinking of requesting for this?)

EDIT:

Useful tips (Not required, but helps people if they want to engage with your fandom!):

- Mention what form of media the canon is. Is it a comic miniseries? Is it a twenty season tv show? Is it a book? Is it a twitter feed?
- Is it standalone or part of a series?
- It's best to make each fandom its own entry with its own title in the subject line! That makes it easier for people to find/see what you're promoting! Don't worry about 'spam', that is the entire point of this entry and you're using it exactly as intended.


For reference, last year's promo post!

Comments

Re: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[mildred_of_midgard]

Actually, while I've got you here...can you recommend any reading on 17th-18th century Russian history? I'm currently reading my way through some books by Robert Massie and Simon Sebag Montefiore (Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, The Romanovs, Catherine and Potemkin), but I'd super appreciate recs from someone knowledgeable like you. I've read most(?) of your DW/LJ and tumblr posts on Peter III, and have gotten some reading materials from there, but is there anything else you can recommend?

I would *love* reading material both in English (or other Western European languages that I have a prayer of being able to read something in) for now, and in Russian for if I ever actually get around to studying Russian.

Many thanks!

Re: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[alley_skywalker]

I'm sorry I left this unanswered for so long! I missed the original notification and then spent like a week just thinking about this like "do I even have English sources? How embarrassing!" I mean, I'm far from an expert, tbh. I just spent four years reading way too much about Peter III lol. No, but ok... I think I've referenced most of the accessible English material on Peter in my yuletide/exchange letters and other posts, other than maybe a few niche articles (unless something new has come out in the last 2-3 years while I've been less obsessed). So if you've read those, you probably have the references. (Though, I'll say, if you don't want to read Leonard's dense af book on politics and policy, Marc Raeff's article "The Domestic Policies of Peter III and His Overthrow" is quite good and I don't think I've mentioned that oen before.)

I can recommend a couple of things on Paul I, though! First, Roderick McGrew has a really good biography. (I happen to have a scan of my copy if there's interest >_>) Another is Paul I: A Reassessment of His Life and Reign edited by Hugh Ragsdale with multiple contributors.

If you'd like to do some digging around in primary sources, the Vorontsov archive is available online: https://runivers.ru/lib/book8295/471943/
Unfortunately, I don't know how accessible it is if you don't know Russian, but there are many letters in French if that's a language you're comfortable with.

Agh I feel like I could be more helpful, but every time I think of something to recommend I realize it's in Russian lol. (Sometimes, if it's primary-source based, it's in freaking horrible old print font + old(er) Russian with weird ass syntax so it's not even like you could reasonably google translate that.) But, frankly, if you're looking for something specific I'm sure I could look around and let you know?

ETA: Oh God, Massie the Catherine stan...my nemesis...

Re: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF

[mildred_of_midgard]

Oh, hi! Thank you! I'm always pleased when I see you sign up for an exchange, because I think, "Maybe that means we'll get more Peter III fic!" :)

"do I even have English sources? How embarrassing!"

No, the embarrassing part is that I can only read English sources! That's why I need a Russian speaker to tell me what's what. (And why you're always welcome in the Frederick the Great discussion posts, where none of us know Russian, and which are increasingly a misnomer for "Early Modern Europe discussion posts", as is called out in the latest two. IOW, if you showed up just to talk about Russia, you'd fit in perfectly.)

Agh I feel like I could be more helpful, but every time I think of something to recommend I realize it's in Russian lol.

I mean, that's okay! Both because I might learn Russian someday, and because if the text is relatively modern (see below), there's always Google translate.

In my last two years of studying German, I realized that 90% of my progress has been made because selenak gives me recommendations for books that are relevant to my interests. Turns out that if I'm going to be spending hours a day struggling with a language, day after day after day, I'd better be DAMN interested in the content!

So Russian recs are welcome even if I can't immediately benefit from them.

(Sometimes, if it's primary-source based, it's in freaking horrible old print font + old(er) Russian with weird ass syntax so it's not even like you could reasonably google translate that.)

Oh, lol, I know this well from German! I'm only just starting to be able to handle horrible old print font plus weird ass syntax, oh god.

But, frankly, if you're looking for something specific I'm sure I could look around and let you know?

Honestly, I'm just looking to expand my knowledge of what was going on in Russia in the 18th century, especially the earlier part. Anything on Elizaveta, Anna Ivanovna, or Anna Leopoldovna (the love triangle with Julia and Lynar!) would be especially great! Or going back even earlier, the regent Sophia Alekseyevna. But I'm also down for more reading on Peter the Great. And since it always comes up in the context of Frederick the Great and his father, I'm curious to learn more about the Tsarevich Alexei episode.

Do you have opinions on the other essays in the The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Reconsidering the Romanovs volume you linked to? Are they worth reading?

ETA: Oh God, Massie the Catherine stan...my nemesis...

Hahaha, yeah, I read his Peter III take and was like, "Well, that's definitely an uncritical acceptance of the older school of thought."