Liberals under autocracy : modernization and civil society in Russia, 1866-1904 / Anton A. Fedyashin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fedyashin, Anton A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vi︠e︡stnikʺ Evropy (Saint Petersburg, Russia).

V�i�estnik� Evropy (Saint Petersburg, Russia).

Liberalism.

History.

Russia--Intellectual life--1801-1917.

Russia.

Intellectual life.

Russia--Politics and government--1801-1917.

Politics and government.

Liberalism--Russia--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

x, 282 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, [2012]

Summary:

With its rocky transition to democracy, post-Soviet Russia has made observers wonder whether a moderating liberalism could ever succeed in such a land of extremes. But in Liberals under Autocracy, Anton Fedyashin looks back at the vibrant Russian liberalism that flourished in the country's late imperial era, chronicling its contributions to the evolution of Russia's rich literary culture, socioeconomic thinking, and civil society.

For five decades prior to the revolutions of 1917, The Herald of Europeans the flagship journal of Russian liberalism, garnering a large readership. The journal articulated a distinctively Russian liberal agenda, one that encouraged social and economic modernization and civic participation through local self-government units (zemstvos) that defended individual rights and interests-especially those of the peasantry-in the face of increasing industrialization. Through the efforts of four men who turned The Herald into a cultural nexus in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg, the publication catalyzed the growing influence of journal culture and its formative effects on Russian politics and society.

Challenging deep-seated assumptions about Russia's intellectual history, Fedyashin's work casts the country's nascent liberalism as a distinctly Russian blend of self-governance, populism, and other national, cultural traditions. As such, the book stands as a contribution to the growing literature on imperial Russia's non-revolutionary, intellectual movements, which emphasized the role of local politics in both successful modernization and the evolution of civil society in an extraparliamentary environment. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The Men of the Herald of Europe

1 Born under the Iron Tsar: Family and School 17

2 Formative Years: The Birth of Ideas 33

3 No Place for Talent: Academia and State Service 53

Part II The Herald of Europe as the Flagship of Russian Liberalism

4 Birth Pangs Full of Promise: The Literary Engine of Success 71

5 Publishing as Philanthropy: Printing and Politics 86

6 A Parting of Ways: The Herald of Europe and Populism 111

Part III The Emergence of a Liberal Program

7 Challenging the Ideology of Progress: Russia and the Global Economy 129

8 Solving the Agrarian Crisis: The Famine of 1891-1892 and the Zemstvo 146

9 From Marxist Apologetics to a Moral Economy 163.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-273) and index.

ISBN:

9780299284343

0299284344

OCLC:

757935719