In her splendid book “Ministry of Darkness,” Lesley Chamberlain instead trains her attention on Sergei Uvarov (1786-1855), a paradoxical figure so original as to transcend all familiar categories. Ms. Chamberlain, an independent historian and novelist, persuasively shows how he nevertheless exercised a profound influence on Russian education and thought.

The Wall Street Journal

Chamberlain's intellectual biography teases out Uvarov's influences with great erudition and peeks into his rather surprising personal life.

Times Literary Supplement

Erudite and, unlike many books of its kind, published as an affordable paperback, Ministry of Darkness is a good account of Uvarov's life.

Canadian Slavonic Papers

Too long dismissed as a cartoon reactionary villain, Sergei Uvarov emerges in the pages of Chamberlain's fascinating biography as a contradictory figure who, in the shadows cast by Europe's revolutionary upheavals, grappled with the apparently incompatible demands of internal stability and cultural progress. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Russia's tortured relationship with the West.

Dr Daniel Beer, Royal Holloway University, University of London, UK

A wise, nuanced, and admirably readable work of intellectual history, this book is indispensable for anyone wishing to understand the complexities and contradictions of Russian conservatism.

Dr Rachel Polonsky, University of Cambridge, UK

Lesley Chamberlain's portrait of Sergei Uvarov is a marvel of erudition and elegance. Her study of the 19th-century Tsarist minister of education reveals a complex and compelling figure whose life, which combined great power and even greater impotence, anticipates the tragic predicament of contemporary Russia and those who seek to reform it.

Prof Robert Zaretsky, University of Houston, USA