Issue № 40. October 2013

XIXth century Russian Conservatives on the Future of Post-Reform Russia (Sociopolitical Aspects of Development)

Alexandr Yu. Polunov – Ph.D., professor, School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University.
E-mail: polunov@spa.msu.ru

Alexandr V. Lukashin – Ph.D., senior specialist, Russian State Socio-Political History Archive.
E-mail: alexlukashin@mail.ru

The article examines the images of power and society represented in the writings of the leading Russian conservatives of the second half of the nineteenth century. The key figure of the conservative camp was Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907), a staunch defender of the unlimited autocracy, estate-based structure of the society, and of the special path of Russia’s development. Having much in common with all trends of the conservative thought, Pobedonostsev did not adhere completely to any of them, using their arguments for the critique of post-reform development of Russia. Though all Russian conservatives shared a number of common ideas, they were nevertheless divided by deep ideological differences which did not permit them to propose a coherent political program.

Keywords

Parliamentary institutions, estate-based society, special path of development, K.P. Pobedonostsev, B.N. Chicherin, I.S. Aksakov, N.P. Ignat’ev, V.P. Meshcherskij, R.A. Fadeev.