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N.A. Berdyaev is an important writer of the Silver Age of Russian literature, philosophy, and theology. Over several decades, he brought his idealist philosophy, informed by Christian theology, into dialogue with the positivism of the early twentieth century. In particular, Berdyaev challenged the philosophical underpinnings of the Russian Revolution, arguing that atheistic socialism actually presented itself as an "inverse religion," one that paid lip service to human freedom while actually subjugating people to the requirements of a human, yet dehumanized, earthly paradise. Berdyaev's reading of his Russian contemporaries, especially Dostoevsky, focused on issues of freedom, personality, and creativity to argue against the consequences of Bolshevik socialism. Nonetheless, his emphasis on creative subjectivity, which subordinates being to freedom and, as with Sartre, fails to ground freedom and personality in personhood, calls for adjustment: the beginnings of such a corrective are found in the thought of Berdyaev's friend, Jacques Maritain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the influence of Chodasevič’s poetic technique on Mandel′štam's poetry. We make an attempt to analyze Mandel′štam's lateNovye stichi(“Ne govori nikomu … ”, “Kuda kak strašno nam s toboj … ” and “My s toboj na kuchne posidim … ”), which are connected to each other through the theme of fear. From the point of view of the poetic technique, these texts are also connected to each other through the literary device of the unexpected twist of meaning, which was associated with Chodasevič’s lyrics in Mandel′štam's consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief survey of the relative position of foreign languages in the first six decades of the eighteenth century attention is turned to the fortunes of English during the reign of Catherine II, when Anglophilia was evident in the upper echelons of Russian society, inspired by the empress herself, and manifesting itself in an enthusiasm for things British but not necessarily for the English language. Opportunities to acquire a knowledge of the English language by visits, often prolonged, to Britain, intermarriage, the presence of an influential British community in the capital, the services of English tutors are examined. The reign of Alexander I is often said to be marked by Anglomania, an extreme form of worship of Britain still most often expressed in French, but the cult of British literature with Byron and Scott in the van, although most often perceived through translation, led to serious study of the English language, particularly among writers and intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first forestry experimental stations in Europe appeared in the 1860-1870s. Russia also had draft proposals for such stations around this time. Discussions about forestry experimental stations began in the 1870s, soon after the Forestry Society of St. Petersburg was established with the support of the Forestry Department. Leading experts in forestry proposed that two 'central' experimental stations (at the Forestry Institute and Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy) should be established and that these should be linked to a further 20 'local' stations. The proposal described in detail the organization of the stations, especially the meteorological department, the model for which was the Bavarian forest-meteorology network created by Ernst Ebermayer. The Russian proposal also contained new ideas on how to study soil moisture dynamics under the forest canopy. Despite productive discussions the network of Russian forestry experimental stations never materialized - probably because of the Russo- Turkish war. The institutionalization of forestry experimentation eventually took place in Russia in the 1890s. This was in response to the 1891-1892 drought and famine, which prompted the organization of the so-called Special Expedition under the supervision of Vasily Dokuchaev. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The years between 1864 and 1879 have a particular resonance for the history of physical anthropology in Russia. In 1864, Professor of Zoology at Moscow University Anatolii Petrovich Bogdanov (1834-1896) conceived the idea for an anthropological exhibition in Moscow. But it was not until 1879 that his idea became a reality. The years between Boganov's conception of the idea and the realization of the exhibition form the focus of this paper, which discusses this formative period for Russian physical anthropology. During this period Bogdanov established the first association of physical anthropologists and the first chair in anthropology at Moscow University. Also around this time the activities of Bogdanov's Society of Friends of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography made the term anthropology widely popular not only among educated people but also among the lay public. Despite the significance of Bogdanov's contributions to the field of Russian physical anthropology, his name is often ignored and his achievements underestimated by the Russian language literature. The reasons for this oversight are outlined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination into parent diaries and the child study movement of Russia between the 1880s and 1930s. Details are given describing how the genre and movement were seen to manifest characteristics both of personal-domestic and scientific modes of knowledge. The author maps the sociocultural factors which promoted the movement, highlighting two specific diaries as contrasting examples. The methodology of diary writing within Russian psychological research is also discussed. Conclusions are then offered noting the practice's decline after 1936.

The article discusses the religious-philosophical commentary made by members of the Russian intelligentsia community regarding World War I. It focuses particularly on the writings of authors including Nikolai Berdiaev, Vladimir Frantsevich Ern, Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov, Prince Evgenii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi, and the Symbolist Viacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov. Topics explored include Christian Providentialism, Russian religious beliefs, Russian civil society, national messianism, and anti-German sentiments.

By obliterating the barrier that had separated Russian scholarship from practical applications, World War I recast the relationship of universities and the government while strengthening academia's bonds with bourgeois capital and democratic republicanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I begin by offering a brief definition of the term 'rationalism', first in its strictly philosophical sense as denoting preference for the use of reason over other means of acquiring knowledge, and then in its broader sense as a term denoting patient reasoning, scepticism and reappraisal of received opinions. In this latter sense rationalism informed the critical movement in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European thought which challenged dogmatic theology, weakened ecclesiastical power and secularized culture. Next, I briefly examine the currency and characteristics of Russian rationalism, particularly as the radical intelligentsia of the 1860s understood the concept (which they often described as 'realism'). I then turn to the work of Petr Tkachev, who is chiefly remembered as an émigré revolutionary strategist of the 1870s, an advocate of seizure of political power by a conspiratorial minority and therefore a possible forerunner of Lenin, but who was also a prolific writer on social and philosophical matters before he was arrested and imprisoned in 1869 in connection with the Nechaev affair. I focus on an article, 'Essays from the History of Rationalism' and associated fragments, which were seized by the police in 1866 and which were not published in Tkachev's lifetime. Tkachev's article describes and discusses the history of religious dogmatism and persecution in medieval and early-modern Europe. Scholars have often taken it to be a significant original work. In fact, I claim, it is heavily dependent on a contemporaneous book, the History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism written by the Irish historian William Lecky. Tkachev did acknowledge his debt to Lecky, but not the extent or nature of the debt; indeed he distanced himself from Lecky. And yet he not only plagiarized the greater part of his article from Lecky (who wrote far more elegantly than Tkachev himself) but also drew from Lecky, no less than from Marx, his thesis that economic considerations underlie ideas and values, as well as the dense factual information for which he admitted Lecky was his source. In this respect Tkachev's article illustrates the derivative nature of Russian rationalism and also indicates the extent to which British influence was overtaking French and German influence in the radical intelligentsia in the 1860s. At the same time, Tkachev's 'rationalism' lacks the broad humanism and toleration that infuses the spirit of rationalism as Lecky conceives of it. His article thus reveals the transformation and impoverishment of a European body of thought when it was transplanted to Russian soil and exemplifies features of the cast of mind of the pre-revolutionary Russian radical intelligentsia on which Sergei Bulgakov remarked in a passage in his contribution to the Landmarks volume that I have taken as my starting point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the thought of the intellectual, art critic and musicologist Petr Suvchinskii, a founding member of interwar Eurasianism. It reconstructs the main points of Suvchinskii's personal Eurasianist philosophy of history, and analyses the special place that his friend and collaborator Igor Stravinsku held in it. Suvchinskii's views are put into the context of the broader intellectual milieu (the ideas of Henri Bergson, the Prague Linguistic Circle, Russian religious thinkers and Mikhail Bakhtin), and their affinity with Eurasianist 'structuralism' is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the religious themes in Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok's work, "Diary," in the years 1901-1902. The author notes that Blok, a Russian lyrical poet, was influenced by ideas typical of Russian symbolism and the Russian Religious Renaissance (i.e., Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov's (a Russian philosopher, poet, literary critic, theologian), as well as that of contemporary fellow Russian symbolists (Andrei Bely), and 19th century Russian poets (Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet, Yakov Petrovich Polonsky). His unique religious theory, however, links Christian beliefs with Greek mythology, paganism, Satanism, legends, theology and his own thoughts, coming together in a Modernist "self-religion" (theurgy) where the creative power of the human self is unrestrained.

The essay focuses on political satire in the Russian press for 1905-1906, especially in the illustrated periodical "Bugbear (Zhupel)," using the theory of cultural production espoused by French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu. It considers how "Bugbear" was publicly received in Russia and how its publication influenced the reputations of its contributors. Other subjects considered include censorship policies, the 1905 Russian Revolution, publisher Sergei Iuritsyn, and the October Manifesto and the Temporary Press Rules.

The article analyses a debate that preoccupied the Russian press in the winter of 1878/9. Writers, journalists and scientists discussed whether mathematics could explain spiritualist séance phenomena. At its core, this was an assessment of social change and a debate about the ambiguity of modern life. While spiritualists hoped to bridge the divide between science and religion, subjectivity and objectivity, their opponents feared that séance phenomena and modern mathematics undermined a rationalist world-view that was endowed with reliability and universal truth. That no agreement could be reached indicates that the post-reform public sphere had become truly pluralist and modern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalysis appears early in Russia, even before that in many western countries. The social Marxist scientists understood the development of a scientific theory of the psyche as a priority and the Freudian hypotheses were received by interest for this task before repression dissolved the psychoanalytic movement at the 1920s. In our case we are going to centre on the contributions of Valentin N. Voloshinov, representative of the fruitful circle bajtiniano in the post-revolutionary Leningrad, which work carries a real anticipating character in the comprehension of the dialectics between the person and the social being from his rediscovery for the social sciences in West. Likewise we will comment how Voloshinov's influence flows especially in some recent attempts for re-conceptualizing the unconscious from a psycho-social perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is primarily concerned with the imagined community of liberal intellectuals (starting with the Westernizers, in the 1840s, and ending with the Kadets and the participants of the October Revolution in the early twentieth century), rather than the community that 'objectively' existed. This imaginary community constructed notions of the collective identity of their own group as well as that of Russian society. For this purpose, they instrumentalized the notions of 'progress,' 'backwardness,' 'culturedness' ( kul'turnost') and 'benightedness' (temnota), thereby creating hierarchies in which the 'constructors' of collective identities granted themselves the important role of intermediaries between state and society. Special attention is paid to the prominent role Russia's liberal historians played in this process insofar as historians possessed great power in nineteenth-century Europe--the power to tell their states and societies about their past, present, and future--and this transformed them into professional producers of (national) identities. Their work combined expert knowledge and ideological clichés in a highly complex manner. The central question posed is to what extent and in what respect the reality constructed by Russian intellectuals coincided with the actions of intellectuals in other European regions or, on the contrary, to what extent their discursive activities had a specifically local character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines (on the basis of Russian history) the development of the concept of a 'special path' in societies that have experienced problems with their self-identity. Western European intellectuals who needed an 'other' in the construction and definition of their own cultural and geographical space in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries played an important role in shaping the understanding of a Russian 'special path.' The 'Russian chaos' they postulated was contrasted to 'Western' rationalism and order and Eastern 'slavery' was seen as a counter position to the 'Western' demands regarding human dignity. With the coming of an era of nationalism in Russia, many of these ideas were adopted by Russian intellectuals and laid a foundation for their own work toward the formation of a national identity. Orthodoxy (as opposed to Catholicism and Protestantism), autocracy (as opposed to parliamentarianism), Narodnost' ('national spirit') and communal traditionalism (in contrast to capitalism, private property and individualism) were seen as the only alternatives to the modern West. The Russian 'Westernizers' were captivated by the idea of a 'special path' as much as the 'Slavophiles' and saw this path through the prism of uniquely refracted concepts of 'Orthodoxy, autocracy and Narodnost''. The author considers the concept of the 'special path' not only as a means of forming group identity, but also as a type of social search within the boundaries of the dominant paradigm. Russian intellectuals claiming Russian 'uniqueness' today, as two centuries ago, are doing so, to a very considerable degree, as a result of western intellectualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles presents a study of the writings of Constantin Léontiev, a Russian philosopher and diplomat in the Ottoman Empire, and his views on the ecclesiastic schism between the Bulgarian and Greek Orthodox churches in 1872. Léontiev perceives the nationalist aspirations of the Bulgarian church as a threat to Russia's interest in the Balkans. The author points out Leontiev' s strong antagonism to the Bulgarian Church' standpoint on Slavic identity and separation from Byzantine Orthodoxy. Having to choose between the Slavic and the Orthodox aspects of Russian nationalism Léontiev' s preference for the Greek Orthodox Church reflected his views on the primacy of the Byzantine Orthodoxy in Russia's leadership.

This article shows that anti-essentialism was a pivotal ideological feature of Russian Zionism - the idiom of Zionism that lay behind Russian Zionist periodicals such as Rassvet in Late Imperial Russia. For Russian Zionists, the Jewish nation was the social field that existed as a social fact. While Russian Zionists' concept of the Jewish nation was inevitably influenced by their political context, nonetheless, it was primarily a result of the convergence of the following two ideological movements. First, there emerged a sense that a socioeconomic foundation was crucial in forming a nation. The transformation of Jewish socioeconomic positions in Eastern Europe and Russia was the background of this consciousness. The second is the ideological claim that any collective entity or social field should be respected regardless of its merit and utility vis-a-vis others. More specifically, for Russian Zionists, the Jewish raison d'etre was the simple existence of their own social field; they believed that no further definition was required. The emergence of this viewpoint can be understood as a reaction to the Zionists' perception of Jewish history where Jews pursued the recognition and validation of their place among non-Jews by virtue of their merit or utility vis-a-vis non-Jews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In comparison with other countries, India and especially its social and economic life could hardly be placed among the subjects which were regularly discussed by the Russian press. Nevertheless, these publications offer an Idea about what the image of India was in Russia, what the Russian people knew and thought about India's socio-economic and particularly agrarian problems, what was the range of questions they were interested in, and in what perspective and context these questions were being considered. Russian interest In India was determined by several governing factors, such as existence of certain common tendencies In the social and economic life of both the countries, perception of their own path of development as different from the West, confrontation of Britain and Russia In Central Asia and by pure economic considerations, among them, competition of Russian and Indian commodities In the world market, desire of the Russian commercial circles to start direct trade with India and borrowing English agricultural practice In India. Russian journals became the source for this article, both literary monthly ('fat magazines') and economics journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to reconstruct and sum up philosophical interpretations of Stavrogin, the main hero of the classic Dostoevsky’s novel “The Devils”, given by the outstanding Russian religious thinkers in the twentieth century. The author emphasizes that, however different can be their philosophical premises, the discussed interpretations of Dostoevsky’s hero are compatible and complementary. Confronting and, above all, synthesizing different points of view, he tries to grasp the basic historiosophical, anthropological and religious ideas of Russian renaissance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There lies at the basis of Leont’ev’s conception a clear distinction and fundamental division of two primary dimensions and rhythms of reality: history and eschatology. In the light of this Leont’evian perspective Dostoevskij’s conception was interpreted and critically evaluated through the prism of the absence in it, and the lack of awareness of the consequence thereof, of a similar, fundamental distinction. The centrality of Dostoevskij in the Russian and intellectual cultural tradition is, among other things, tied to his acceptance of a series of fundamental and constitutive assumptions deeply rooted in a characteristic sphere of myths and illusions. The specificity of the place and significance of Leont’ev’s concepts within this tradition results from the fact that it takes a critical distance, giving thus the possibility of conceiving an essentially different problematization of the world extending beyond commonly established and naturalized obviousness of the principles and ‘prejudices’ of one’s own culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milestones was a manifesto of rightwing, anti-revolutionary liberalism, according to which the political events of 1905 should have officially concluded the intelligentsia’s battle against autocracy and inaugurated the intelligentsia’s cooperation with Russia’s “historical rulers” to turn the country into an economically and culturally strong “state of law.” All the Milestones’ authors agreed that Russia’s intellectual history was not identical with the traditions of the radical intelligentsia, and that there was need for a new intellectual canon focused on religious thought and efforts to define the Russian national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article constitutes an attempt, previously not undertaken in the critical literature, to collate all the known information concerning Nikolai Gogol''s work in 1833-1834 on a history of Ukraine, and, based on this evidence, to formulate a reasoned conclusion as to how much of the history he might have completed beyond what purports to be the introductory chapter, initially published under the title "Fragment from a History of Little Russia" and later as "A Glance at the Composition of Little Russia." Gogol''s original plan was to write a history of Ukraine from the time southern Rus' separated from the northern as a consequence of the conquest of Kyiv by the Mongols in 1240 and later the absorption of Kyivan Rus' by Lithuania in the mid-14th century. The "Fragment" is almost certainly the only part of it, as per this plan, ever written, and is itself probably unfinished, because the writer broke off work on it when he redesigned the history, intending now to begin with the early history of the Eastern Slavs and the founding of the Kyivan state. A two-page prose fragment found among what is represented in the 1937-1952 Academy edition of Gogol''s complete collected works as the writer's notes on Russian history, represents the new beginning, but this breaks off as well, and what would have constituted its continuation is still in the form of an outline and notes, so that, logically, no continuation of either beginning can be expected to surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of conservatism in Russia in the 19th century, including its diverse ideological origins. Links between conservatism and nationalism are discussed, and Russian conservatism is compared with its counterpart in Europe. Recent historiography surrounding Russian conservatism is briefly reviewed, and 19th-century trends in Russian political thought are then discussed, with the Decembrist uprising of 1925 seen as a turning point between the influence of progressivism and the ascendancy of conservatism.

The article presents an examination into the role of the intelligentsia social class within the contextual structure of the Russian Imperial culture. The structural definition of empire as a dichotomy between central and peripheral power and influence is highlighted, applying to the interactions between the intelligentsia of Russia and Poland between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Focus is given to the nationalistic elements of intellectual and cultural influence which developed within this system, leading to a conflict between Russian hegemony and diverse national interests which eventually led to the collapse of the Russian state in 1917.

The article presents an in-depth examination into the popular reception of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy during his career lifetime. Details are given profiling the novelist's career and his growth as a national celebrity in 19th-century Russia. Elements of his popularity discussed include his appearance and depiction in the news, political and popular cartoons, and his reception among the intellectual circles of the nation. Several divergent views on Tolstoy's social and political ideas are mentioned in turn, especially the among the rising socialist groups.

The problem of the legal person is a central issue in legal philosophy and the theory of law. In this article I examine the semantic meaning of the concept of the person in Russian philosophy at the turn of the twentieth century, considered to be the “Golden Age” of Russian legal thought. This provides an overview of the conception of the personality in the context of different legal approaches (theory of natural law, legal positivism, the psychological legal doctrine, and the sociological school of law). I indicate a polemic among the theories of the person and attempts to create an integral concept of the legal subject. In addition I present an analysis of the relation between the concepts of the legal subject and the moral person, which personify fundamental features of law and morality. In order to demarcate the notions of individual and the legal subject, I focus on doctrines of the artificial person or the juridical person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Georgii Plekhanov is often credited with being the 'father of Russian Marxism'. He was not, however, the first Russian Marxist. That distinction belongs to Nikolai Ivanovich Sieber (Ziber), whose dissertation on Marx's economics appeared in 1871, the year before the Russian translation of Das Kapital, and introduced Plekhanov's generation of Russian revolutionaries to Marxist ideas. Sieber's work was then given a prominent endorsement in the second edition of Das Kapital, wherein Marx praised the depth of understanding Sieber had displayed of his economic theory. In view of this, one might consider that Sieber should be regarded as a dominant figure in the history of Marxism in Russia but, in fact, he is seldom mentioned by historians - and, when he is, it is generally cursorily and dismissively. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to examine the interrelationship of Sieber and Marx and to place Sieber's writings in the context of the emergence of the Russian conception of Marxism at the end of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how a clash developed in 19th century Russia between traditions of family, or genealogy and youthful rebellion centered on a sense of generational solidarity. The author presents an investigation of social and intellectual history to determine what was distinctive and unique regarding this phenomenon in Russia.

This article examines the attitude of Russian author Leo Tolstoy towards political violence and terrorism. Tolstoy was generally liberal but towards the end of his life, he evinced a greater sympathy for political violence. The plot of the novel he was working on at his death concerned a disillusioned clergyman who embraced terrorism and willingly became a martyr. But as social and political conditions changed in Russia, so too did Tolstoy's attitudes.

The article presents an exploration into the aesthetics of the 19th-century Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovev, particularly in their discussion of creativity as a religious action between God and man. Details are given outlining Solovev's conception of the creative as an active and redemptive aspect of being in a fallen world. Further discussion is given outlining Solovev's placement within the larger philosophical and cultural movements of Russia during his era, including reference to fellow philosopher Nicolai Chernyshevsky and writer Aleksander Pushkin.

The article presents an exploration into the common elements of the alternative Russian intelligentsia of the 1850s, the popovichi, or sons of ex-priests. An overview of the lives and political theories of Nikolai Dobroliubov, Ivan Tsvetkov, and Aleksandr Smirnov are each given, comparing and contrasting their social backgrounds and their views of anti-aristocracy.

This article investigates the statements of contemporary Russian Old Believer elites on political, foreign policy, inter-confessional relations, economic and ideological issues to make two types of comparisons. First, the juxtaposition of contemporary Old Believer public discourse against reported pre-revolutionary Old Believer value orientations reveals an intriguing historical discontinuity. Contrary to the literature and my initial hypothesis, the collected data show consistent patterns of anti-market, anti-democratic, illiberal, intolerant and anti-Western attitudes common to all concords analysed in this study. Next, the analysis demonstrates a remarkable similarity between social and political preferences of modern Old Believer and Russian Orthodox authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the cultural conflict in early 19th century Russia illustrated by the dismissal in 1810 of the Mason Ignaz Aurelius Fessler from the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy and in 1816 of the philosopher Johann Schad from Khar'kov University. Reasons why educational authorities deemed the two ex-monks to be subversive; Change in the reform plans of Tsar Alexander I between 1801 and 1825.

Suspicion of Western panaceas has a long history in Russia: these current protesters are continuing a polemic which began in 1855, when Tsar Alexander II signaled his intention to transform Russia from a primitive despotism into some kind of modern state. The great émigré radical thinker Alexander Herzen was soon at loggerheads with the theorists of the emerging Russian liberal movement. Then, as now, the issue was one of transition, in which the questions “Whither Russia?” and “Whither history?” were closely intertwined. Aileen Kelly believes that this early debate is well worth revisiting, both because of its relevance to the current crisis in Russia and because of Herzen’s remarkably prescient insights into the self-deceptions of ideological thought. Kelly argues that by 1859 Herzen had come to accept the futility of seeking to engage in dialogue with those who believed that Russia’s path of progress had been mapped out in advance, and he declared open war on the Westernizers’ doctrinairism, asserting in his press that the main threat to the commune’s future existence came not from the government but from liberals well versed in political economy and legal theory, and devoted to the principles of Prussian bureaucracy and French centralism. Herzen finally conceded that the dogma-bound Hegelian liberals (the “Russian Germans”, as he called them) were immune to all persuasion; but he continued his efforts with a more subtle and sympathetic opponent: the writer Ivan Turgenev. The article shows Herzen waging war on two fronts: against the liberals’ denigration of popular aspirations, and against the radicals’ belief that these aspirations coincided with their own exalted ideals. He tells the left that the truth, so far as can be ascertained, is more prosaic -- the people want bread and land; and he tells Turgenev that he perfectly understands his horror of the knee-deep mud, droughts, floods and hard labours that face those with faith in Russia’s separate path -- a path only dimly glimpsed through a thick fog which may never be dispelled. He holds out no hope that peasant socialism, even if developed with the help of Western science and social theory, will embrace all the civilized values that they both hold dear; its justification is that it is more likely to correspond to the aspirations of the vast mass of the population than an imported system imposed by an elite. Kelly concludes that our culture still has a deep-seated allegiance to the comforting idea of a single order underlying the diversity of life. The myths and prejudices that nurtured this belief survive in the metaphors commonly used to represent development in nature, history and culture, as movement through time from simple to complex, less to more, primitive to advanced. It is precisely to this phenomenon that Herzen refers in his deconstruction of the discourse of Russian liberalism, and the same ideological bias can be seen in assessments of his own thought by 20th century Western liberal scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the significance of geographical space to the Russian national consciousness. Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier hypothesis as a mode of analysis in nineteenth-century historiography; Theses of Russian historian Sergei Mikhailovich Solov'ev; Comparison of Turner and Solov'ev's theses; Russia as an organic European state; Colonization in Russia; Curse of empty spaces.

Describes the public reaction generated by the publication in 1909 of `Landmarks,' a collection of essays addressed to the Russian intelligentsia of that time. Criticisms, positive reactions and outright defamation bestowed on the book and its authors; Book's analysis of the system of values and ideals on which the Russian intelligentsia had lived for more than half a century; Excerpts and analyses.

An introduction is presented to this special issue on topics related to the history of science in Russia arising from the November 2012 European Conference for the History of Science held in Athens, Greece.