The Emergence Of Russian Contitutionalism 1900 1904

My interest in the topic of this book traces back over more than ten years to my interest in the history of political parties in pre revolutionary Russia. To my late tutor Professor Reinhard Wittram, who guided me during my undergraduate and post-graduate days as a student at the University of Gottingen, lowe a special gratitude for giving my iiJ.terest its special focus. I. am indebted to him for my academic training more than this book may indicate. He did not see the results of his influence, but he followed my preparatory work with both sympathy and critical attention. My thanks are due equally to Professors Hans Roos (Bochum) and Rudolf Vierhaus (Gbttingen), whose constant advice and help meant continued encouragement. I am further obliged to Professors Dietrich Geyer (Tiibingen) and Hans Kaiset (Oldenburg) and their critical reading of the 1973 draft of my book. In 1977/78, during my revision of the manuscript and its preparation for publication, the most im portant suggestions came to me from many discussions deep into the night with my friend Jurgen Jahnke. To the many others whose names do not appear here lowe my thanks for their help and encouragement.

The constitutional question is of paramount importance in the political and nationalist agenda of late twentieth-century Europe. Professor van Caenegem's new book addresses fundamental questions of constitutional organisation: democracy versus autocracy, unitary versus federal organisation, pluralism versus intolerance, by analysing different models of constitutional government through an historical perspective. The approach is chronological: constitutionalism is explained as the result of many centuries of trial and error through a narrative which begins in the early Middle Ages and concludes with contemporary debates, focusing on Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Special attention is devoted to the rise of the rule of law, and of constitutional, parliamentary, and federal forms of government. The epilogue discusses the future of liberal democracy as a universal model.

There is a widespread notion that Russia is forever fated to be an authoritarian country where liberalism and democracy can never make real progress. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century there was an extremely influential “liberationist” movement which culminated in the formation of a modern, Western-style liberal party, the Constitutional Democrats or “Kadets”. The book provides a comprehensive history of the rise of the Kadets, focusing, in particular, on the revolutionary years 1905-06. It outlines how they dominated the first Duma elected by the people and analyses their policies, social composition and political tactics. The book challenges the view (shared by many historians) that the Kadets were inherently extreme, doctrinaire or unwilling to compromise, and argues that their eventual failure was primarily due to the intransigence of the old régime. The Russian Liberals and the Revolution of 1905 illustrates, in detail, that the Kadets offered a moderate alternative to reaction on the one hand and revolution on the other.

Prince George E. Lvov was born in Dresden in 1861, the same year Tsar Alexander II emancipated the serfs and Russia began to move away from its static society of orders toward a more modern polity. He died in exile in Paris in 1925 with Russia once again in thralldom. Prince L’vov dedicated his life to the improvement of the peasantry’s condition and, like many other liberals, hoped to acculturate them to the norms and values of a civil society to attempt to overcome the backwardness of provincial life and ultimately to integrate them as ‘citizens” into a modern, vibrant “nation.” L’vov played an important role in Russia’s first experiment with local self-government, oversaw the “Great Migration” of thousands of peasants to settle the wilderness of Siberia free from anyone’s tutelage, organized aid to the tsar’s peasant soldiers in the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars and helped to marshal the resources of the nation and coordinate industrial production during the latter conflict. It was precisely because of this lifetime of dedicated public service that he was chosen as liberal Russia’s standard bearer upon the collapse of the Romanov dynasty. But the few references in the scholarly literature concerning Prince George L’vov are invariably negative ones which fault him for his weak and ineffectual performance as the first head of the Russia Provisional Government in 1917. That the Provisional Government failed is, of course, incontrovertible, though much of the blame rightly should be, and generally is, laid at the feet of his successor. Of course, it must also be allowed that the social revolution developed and then deepened during L’vov’s stewardship of Russia. Equally unassailable is the conclusion that it was largely that government’s temporizing, whether deliberate or not, which led to its demise. What then accounted for this paralysis and complete failure of Russia’s liberal movement? This book attempts to answer that question by presenting a more balanced appraisal of L’vov’s place in Russian history through an examination of his career as a dedicated public servant.

This book offers a fresh and stimulating analysis of the often elusive relationship between domestic and foreign policy in Russia before the First World War. Dietrich Geyer, one of Germany's leading historians of Russia, discusses a wide variety of economic, fiscal, institutional, and ideological developments within imperial Russia. In so doing, he brings into sharp relief the difficulties faced by the ruling elites in maintaining Russia's great power position in Europe, the Near East, and the Far East. Now available in English for the first time, this widely acclaimed book will be welcomed as an indispensable resource by all those who were unable to read the original German edition. "By far the most perceptive, knowledgeable, and intelligent work on the last half century of imperial Russia in print." -Theodore H. Von Laue, Russian History "This important, tightly packed book... analyzes the basic problems of Russian imperialism thoroughly and with enormous erudition.... Scholars concerned with imperialism and Russian domestic and foreign problems will welcome this thought-provoking work." -David MacKenzie, American Historical Review "A convincing and important analysis of the mutual dependence of autocratic domestic and foreign politics.... This book ought to be the occasion for a renewed and wide discussion of Russian imperialism and should give rise to further studies of the question." -Alan Kimball, Slavic Review "This is a remarkably good book. Good in many respects--quality of research and writing, breadth of view, command of the facts, balance and penetration in judgment, familiarity with relevant theory.... The book represents a revived and deepened historicism." -Paul W. Schroeder, Journal of Modern History

This book is written based on vigorous and prolonged debates between the Slavophils and proponents of Russian Slavophilism's principal ideological rival, Westernism, in the mid-nineteenth century. It presents the analysis and evaluation of Iu. F. Samarin's dissertation.