Boris N. Chicherin and the Problem of the Political Identification of His Legacy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines a still contentious question: how conservative and liberal elements are combined in Boris N. Chicherin’s worldview and political doctrine. It considers several points of view on this issue (expressed by Nikolai Berdyaev, Petr Struve, Georgii Plekhanov, Vasilii Zen’kovskii) and analyzes Chicherin’s works of the 1850s–1860s that have provoked the most heated debates. The author attempts to show that assessing the conservative element in Chicherin’s worldview is not as straightforward a task as is commonly assumed. His concepts of conservatism and “protective principles” do not fit within broader understandings of conservatism. This article pays particular attention to analyzing the dramatic experience of Chicherin’s cooperation with the authorities and the reasons his political position radicalized.