The World view of the early Russian liberals. Part 1

As an epigraph to his book author quotes a sentence of the well-known Russian liberal B.N. Chicherin: “The whole future of Russia depends on liberalism”. The author studied the history of Russian liberalism for many years, but only recently, after the collapse of USSR, did it become possible to publish all his results. This monograph is about the outstanding theorists of the 19th century liberal movement in Russia, equally criticized from both the left and right, T.N. Granovskii (1813-1855), K.D. Kavelin (1818-1885) and B.N. Chicherin (1828-1904), their political and social views, the polemics with their Slavophile opponents. The fundamental conclusion of this discussion was a reaffirmation of the necessity for a serious transformation of Russia into a modern state functioning in concordance with law. The book gives interesting data for the contemporary discussion about the future of Russian democracy. Bibliographical references. Appendix includes a list of author`s recent publications.