The Russian aristocracy/gentry is not only a very large topic, but it is also one relatively under-served in the historiography. The impact of 1917 has meant that a good deal of time and effort is devoted to studying the peasantry and the formation of the Russian working class. Even Smith's Former People is about how the nobility were the losers in the Russian Revolution. The nobility itself was far from a homogeneous social group and could compose of Catholic Poles, Lutheran Baltic-Germans, and Orthodox and Old Believer Russians. Moreover, what noble rank meant and the power it held varied considerably over time.

For the eighteenth century, Brenda Meehan-Waters's Autocracy and Aristocracy, the Russian Service Elite of 1730 is a quantitative analysis of this social group and the ramifications of becoming a service nobility. Noble men are often the default subjects for these studies, but A Woman's Kingdom: Noblewomen and the Control of Property in Russia, 1700-1861 by Michelle Lamarche Marrese is an exception and puts Tolstoy's female characters into context. Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power by Richard Stites is a cultural history of the elite and how elevated culture coexisted with a form of human bondage. It is hard to understand the Russian nobility without its opposite, the serfs, and Elise Kimerling Wirtschaftler's Russia's Age of Serfdom 1649-1861 is an excellent survey of this socioeconomic landscape of this period.

For Russia's long nineteenth century, In the Vanguard of Reform: Russia's Enlightened Bureaucrats, 1825-186 by W. Bruce Lincoln highlights the Nicolavean period and the context that contributed both to the abortive Decembrist revolt and paved the way for the Great Reforms. Daniel Field's The End of Serfdom: Nobility and Bureaucracy in Russia, 1855– 1861 covers the Great Reforms of Alexander II and the noble-bureaucrats' role. Seymour Becker's Nobility and Privilege in Late Imperial Russia takes issue with the teleology of a class in decadent decline and finds the nobility to be more willing to adjust to modernity than various Silver Age novels would suggest. Dominic Lieven, himself the scion of a Russian noble-servitor family, covers the elite nobility in the age of Nicholas II in his Russia's Rulers under the Old Regime. Lieven's ancestors are dealt with in both The Tsar's Loyal Germans. The Riga German Community: Social Change and the Nationality Question, 1855-1905 by Anders Henriksson and Heide W. Whelan Adapting to Modernity: Family, Caste and Capitalism among the Baltic German Nobility, although both books are somewhat hard to find.

Just did some digging on the Books and Resources List:

• The Rise of Modern Warfare 1618-1815 by H.W. Koch: "Absolutely full of etchings, portraits, and diagrams. Divided into several sections based on country: England, France, Russia, etc., as well as general discussion of modern warfare. Each section discusses uniform, armament, and tactics. Suitable for in-depth study or just looking at the pictures."

• Russia Under the Old Regime by Richard Pipes: Apparently he's written 3 recommended books on Russia, and skews a little conservative. This book covers the Russian state from the 9th century to the 1880s. The other 2 books are The Russian Revolution and Russia Under The Bolshevik Regime

There doesn't seem to be a ton of pre-revolution/Soviet Russia books in the reading list, so hopefully someone else has more to offer. Either way, I hope this helps!