The Cultural and Spiritual Dimension of Russian Liberalism at the Turn of the Nineteenth/Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the features of the intellectual and cultural environment in which the ideas of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century liberalism developed. Based on the assumption of liberalism as the “major ideology” created by the Enlightenment and, in that sense, a doctrine designed to “work” in any social and historical conditions, the author describes Russian liberalism as distinctive phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between the unique and the universal principles in Russian liberal philosophy and sociopolitical thought of this era. The article focuses on the influence that transformation of ideas and cultural life in turn-of-the-century Russia had on the representatives of liberalism: the then-urgent crisis of ideals at that time and the desire to identify new vectors for social development, radicalization of sentiments and reform projects, and so forth. The author also notes the reciprocal influence of ideas on the sociopolitical process. One of the key focuses of this article is the conceptual ideas of Orthodox renewal with the possibility of an ultimate synthesis of Christian and liberal ideas. This study should produce a fairly complete picture of the cultural and spiritual background of liberal thought in Russia at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.