Abstract
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.
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Notes
Russian liberals published as many as three collections of essays contesting Milestones: After Milestones, In Defense of the Intelligentsia and The Intelligentsia in Russia featuring an article by Miljukov entitled The Intelligentsia and Historical Tradition.
See R. Pipes 1980, p. 114.
See: D. S. Merežkovskij The Meek Seven (Siem' smiriennych) [in:] ibid, Fully Collected Works (Połnoje sobranije sočinenii) vol. 12, St. Petersburg-Moscow 1911, pp. 69–81 (first printed in: “Riecz”, April 26 1909).
A supplement here is an opinion voiced by Lenin, who called Milestones an “encyclopedia of liberal renegacy” (Lenin, Works (Dzieła,), vol. 16, Warsaw 1957, p. 119). The Bolshevik leader did not believe Milyukov’s condemnation of Milestones was sincere—he was convinced Miljukov was only playing critic to win popularity but in fact was in full agreement with the criticized book (Lenin, Works (Dzieła,), vol. 16, p. 133).
See: R.V. Ivanov-Razumnik, The History of Russian Public Thought (Istorija russkoj obščestvennoj mysli), 2nd edition, St. Petersburg 1908, vol II, Chapter VIII: Idealistic Individualism.
A complete listing of Kistjakovskij’s scholarly work can be found in Chapter VI of my book The Legal Philosophy of Russian Liberalism, (Walicki 1995, pp. 356–418).
References
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Walicki, A. Milestones and Russian intellectual history. Stud East Eur Thought 62, 101–107 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-010-9097-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-010-9097-8