Was There an "Early Russian Liberalism"? Perspectives from Russian and Anglo-American Historiography

Abstract

Nineteenth-century liberalism has traditionally occupied prominent in study of intellectual and political history. Presently there is an extensive historiography on liberalism, but specialist's attentive gaze will easily discover yawning gaps, foremost of which is early stage in development of liberalism, 1850s. Research into any historical phenomenon, including intellectual history, compels scholar to address problem of origins. When and how did formative process of tradition in Russia take place? What was first variant of liberalism? The answers to these questions, in my estimation, are to be found in history of mid-19th-century socio-political thought. Tradition demands that we should give liberalism's firstborn name, to show that this was initial period in history of This circumstance alone should cause us to adopt term in universal and familiar scholarly use-early liberalism. Identifying early liberalism as an independent stage will help us in constructing periodization for entire history of liberalism, whose initial pages remain to be written. This approach will also help us come to terms with liberalism by separating it from mid-19th-century radicalism and conservatism. Interest in mid-19th-century liberalism arose, most likely, in connection with study of concrete historical topics such as well-known Westernizer--Slavophile debate, Great Reforms (1860s-70s), and zemstvo movement. Yet early liberalism has hardly been considered as an independent intellectual phenomenon for very long. The genesis of liberalism has often been tied either to Westernism or to so-called liberalism and zemstvo activity. Westernism was platform for heterogeneous ideological elements, however, primarily of radical and bent. Westernizers included A. I. Herzen, V. G. Belinskii, T. N. Granovskii, K. D. Kavelin, and other thinkers who laid foundations in 1840s of both radical and traditions. Meanwhile, concept of gentry liberalism-centered around estate identity and devoid of precise meaning-has acquired little currency among intellectual historians, while zemstvo movement did not appear until 1860s. By contrast, 1850s remain an understudied period. Thus, early liberalism continues to be topic of discussion in scholarly community. The goal of this article is to study fundamental scholarly approaches to early liberalism in both and Western historiography. In historiography, two phases are evident in study of liberalism's beginning stage. In Soviet phase, which extended from mid-1950s to early 1990s, it was commonplace to acknowledge mid-1850s as formative years when liberalism became significant social trend. (1) The earliest works devoted to genesis of tradition in Russia emphasized that the further formation of ideology and its political program took place after Emperor Alexander II (1855-81) had ascended throne in a time of heightened social tension. (2) The membership of liberal family in 1850s was also established: in addition to K. D. Kavelin and B. N. Chicherin, V. P. Botkin, A. V. Druzhinin, and P. V. Annenkov were added to roster. (3) At same time, various facts entered into historiographical circulation that subsequently gained universal acceptance among specialists. In particular, intelligentsia circles in two capitals were identified as most important centers of movement that was forming in mid-19th century-the Moscow circle of A. B. Stankevich and K. D. Kavelin's group in St. Petersburg 4 Additionally, appearance of manuscript literature and its publication abroad in series of articles in Golosa iz Rossii was acknowledged as an important event and is usually referred to as Russian liberals' first public pronouncement. …