Ruské liberální myšlení 50. a 60. let 19. století : historiografie konceptualizace (do rozpadu SSSR)

This paper maps the historiography of the concept of early Russian liberalism in Soviet and English language specialist literature from the nineteen fifties until the end of the nineteen eighties, whereas some of the traits of this phenomenon, which remain valid to date, where endorsed in historical science during this period. This particularly includes the fact that liberal ideology was formulated in Russia in the middle of the nineteenth century. The most significant representatives of this movement were B. N. Čičerin and K. D. Kavelin, to whose philosophy of history early Russian liberalism was related. Its weakest point was the political component, because this differed the most from classic European liberalism as a result of the difference between the West European and Russian political and social environments. This is why liberal influences in the Russian environment must be sought outside the political sphere, in literary criticism and journalism (the works of P. V. Annenkov and V. P. Botkin), as well as in history. While Soviet researchers chiefly interpreted the works of individual representatives of early Russian liberalism in detail, English language authors concentrated on clarification of the particularities of early Russian liberalism and its position within the context of the development of European thinking.