The First World War: Russian Liberal Point of View Cover Image

Российские либералы о Первой мировой войне
The First World War: Russian Liberal Point of View

Author(s): K. A. Solovyov, V. V. Shelokhaev
Subject(s): History
Published by: Издательство Исторического факультета СПбГУ
Keywords: World War I; liberalism; international law; national economy; political system

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the various aspects of understanding of the nature of the First World War by prominent representatives of Russian liberalism. Authors analyzed their views on the nature of international conflict, the prevailing legal support European Law Enforcement, Russian foreign policy goals, the economic potential of the leading powers in wartime, the state and prospects of scientific knowledge, the political balance of power in the country. Russian liberals have stated that from the beginning of the First World War, Europe (and, consequently, Russia) ushered in the new era, existing on other, previously unknown laws. Previous norms of life — in politics, economics, law, and even science — had to undergo substantial revision. However, the Russian liberals themselves, defining their own tactics of political struggle in the near future followed the principles of the pre-war years. By modeling the shape of the world after the war, they were largely copied them habitual patterns of the recent past. The authors have carefully considered the most prominent Russian liberal attitude to the events of the First World War from its beginning to the revolutionary events of 1917, demonstrated a change in their relationship to the government and the internal arrangement of the country.

  • Issue Year: 4/2014
  • Issue No: 11
  • Page Range: 184-196
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Russian