Project description DEENESFRITPL A closer look at development in Denmark and Russia During the 18th century, the Danish and Russian empires had similar economic and institutional development. Denmark lost several of its territories after the abolition of serfdom in 1800 but experienced rapid development, while Russia remained underdeveloped. Between the 1860s and 1920, Denmark assisted Russia through the transfer of expertise, knowledge, and specialists. The EU-funded DEAR project examines Russo-Danish relations in the 18th and 19th centuries to understand the disintegration of Denmark, the survival of the Russian empire, and the ultimately divergent pathways of the two states. DEAR combines expertise from the Historical Economics and Development Group (HEDG) at the University of Southern Denmark with unique datasets on preindustrial and early industrial development in both countries. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective At a time when public attention is focused on differences rather than similarities, comparative studies of Russia and Europe open new perspectives beyond the familiar dichotomous discourse. In this spirit, my MCSA project “Denmark and Russia: Why two Arctic empires developed so differently and continue to diverge?” (DEAR) examines Russo-Danish relations in the 18th and the 19th centuries. For the entire 18th century the two states were very close in terms of economic and institutional development, but after the abolition of serfdom in Denmark in 1800 their paths diverged significantly. This was most striking with the gradual collapse of the Danish empire, and the subsequent rapid development of the remaining territory, whereas Russia remains relatively “backward”, but with its territory largely intact. From the 1860s until the 1920s a much-reduced Denmark became a teacher to its larger partner through the transfer of knowledge, expertise, and experts – a process which aided Russian development, and emphasizes the links between the two countries. The overarching question motivating DEAR is to explore what accounts for the ultimately divergent pathways of the two empires as well as the rapid disintegration of the Danish Empire and the survival of the Russian Empire, given their initial similarities. DEAR combines the expertise of the Historical Economics and Development Group (HEDG) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Danish economic history and quantitative methods, my research experience in Russian economic history, and the access of both to unique datasets on the preindustrial and early industrial development of these countries. Fields of science social scienceseducational sciencesdidacticssocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomics Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2020 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2020 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator SYDDANSK UNIVERSITET Net EU contribution € 219 312,00 Address Campusvej 55 5230 Odense m Denmark See on map Region Danmark Syddanmark Fyn Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00