Russian Conservatives on the Future of the Post-Reform Russia (Sociopolitical Aspects of Development)
The article treats the images of power and society represented in the writings of the leading Russian conservatives of the second half of 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 the post-reform development of Russia. Though all Russian conservatives shared a number of the common ideas, they were nevertheless divided by the deep ideological cleavages which did not permit them to propose a coherent political program.