Political liberalism in postcommunist Russia

Review of Politics

Volumn 58, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 469-503

  Weigle, Marcia A ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34248135603     PISSN: 00346705     EISSN: 17486858     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0034670500020155     Document Type: Article

References (133)

1. I. M. Kliamkin, "The Paradoxes of Mass 'Liberal' Consciousness in Contemporary Russia," Etika uspekha No.2 (1994): 70-80
2. as translated in Russian Politics and Law 33:6 (1995): 21-30.
3. Fedor Ismailovich Rodichev, Vospominaniia i ocherki o russkom liberalizme, edited and annotated and introduced by Kermit E. McKenzie (Newtonville, MA: Oriental Research Publishers, 1983).
4. Nicolas Berdaev, 77K Russian Idea (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948).
5. George Fischer, Russian Liberalism: From Gentry to Intelligentsia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958).
6. Paul Miliukov, Russia and its Crisis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906), pp. 433-534.
7. V. N. Bochkarev, Ocherk' istorii rewliutsionnago dvizheniia v Rossii XVII-XX v.v. (Moskva: Russkii Knizhnik', 1918).
8. A. D. Stepanski, Obshchestvennie organizatsii v Rossii na rubezhe XIX-XX vekov (Moskva: Moskovskii gosudarstvennii istoriko-arkhivnii institut, 1982), pp. 77-86.
9. Semyon Frank, "De profundis," in Iz glubiny, ed. S. A. Askol'dova et al. (Moskva-Petrograd: Russkaia Mysl', 1918), p. 260.
10. For the most comprehensive review of the formation of political parties in prerevolutionary Russia, see Terence Emmons, The Formation of Political Parties and the First National Elections in Russia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983).
11. The most interesting and widespread discussion in Russia is of the collection of essays published in 1909 as Vekhi (Landmarks)For the edited collection of essays and an Introduction on the impact of the essays on thecurrent discussion of liberalism in Russia, see Vekhi (Landmarks): A Collection of Articles about the Russian Intelligentsia, trans, and ed. Marshall S. Shatz and Judith E. Zimmerman (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994).
12. Space limitations preclude a systematic discussion of Russian political parties which claim to be liberal in orientation. The focus here on the content of Russian political liberalism and the context in which it has emerged is based on the argument that the Russian discussion of the principles of political liberalism must be understood as a prelude to any analysis of the development of liberal political parties.
13. For the content of the Democratic Union program, see B. F. Slavin, ed., "Proekt programmy partii Democraticheskii Soiuz, vynesennyi na obshchepartiinuiu diskussiiu III s'ezdom DS," Noveishie politicheskie partii i techeniia SSSR (Moskva: Institut Teorii i Istorii Sotsializma TsK KPSS, 1991), pp. 565-639.
14. For an overview of the programs and orientation of the liberal-oriented parties which emerged after March 1990
15. see A. N. Kuksin and E. V. Kodin, Politicheskie Partii Rossii, Dokumenty i Materialy (Smolensk: 1993).
16. DemRossiia's constituent parties in late 1991 were the Democratic Party of Russia, the Republican party of Russia, the Social Democratic party of Russia, the Russian Christian Democratic Movement, the Free Democratic party and the Constitutional Democrats.
17. Iu. I. Aver'ianov, ed., Politologiia: entsiklopedicheskii slovar' (Moskva: Moskovskogo Kommercheskogo Universiteta, 1993), p. 154.
18. Pavel Kydiukin, "Nam ne khvataet liberalizma," Panorama No.15 (1991): 4.
19. Leonid Gozman, "Liberaly nikogda ne pridut k vlasti," Panorama No.14 (1990).
20. E. Mareeva, "O krainostiakh neformal'nogo politicheskogo myshleniia ili surrogatakh demokratizma," in Neformaly: Kto oni? Kyda zovut?, ed. V. A. Pecheneva and V. I. V'iunitskii (Moskva: Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1990), 70-88, pp. 74-77.
21. See, for example, V. Kosmarskii et al., "Attitudes of the Population toward the Prospect of Making the Transition to a Market," The Soviet Review 32: 4 (1991): 23-30
22. as translated from the original, "Otnoshenie naseleniia k perspektive perekhode k rynku," Voprosy ekonomiki No.7 (1990): 56-59.
23. Boris Kagarlitsky, The Disintegration of the Monolith, trans. Renfrey Clarke (London: Verso, 1992).
24. Boris Kagarlitsky, The Thinking Reed: Intellectuals and the Soviet State, 1917 to the Present, trans. Brian Pearce (London: Verso, 1988).
25. See, for example, A. V. Fadin, "Kvadratura kruga ili zametki ob antinomiiakh liberal-etatizma," in Sotsializm i demokratiia (Moskva: Institut ekonomiki mirovoi sotsialisticheskoi sistemy, 1989), pp. 112-124
26. A. Migranian, "The Long Road to a European Home," Soviet Law and Government (Winter 1990-1991), pp. 62-98
27. as translated from the original "Dolgii put' k evropeiskomu domu," Novy mir No.7 (1989): 166-184
28. For a warning of the danger of the absence of a strong middle class with liberal values in the context of Russian history, see I. M. Kliamkin, "Marksizm i stalinizm," vcxDrama Obnovleniia: Perestroika, Glasnost', Demokratiia, Sotsializm, ed. M. I. Melkumiana (Moskva: Progress, 1990), pp. 280-304.
29. Interview with M. Sal'yo, co-chair of the Free Democratic party, in Informatsionnyi Biulleteri (Svobodnii demokraticheskaia partiia rossii), in Alexander Suetnov, Svdbodnii demokraticheskaia partiia rossii. The Center for the Studies of New Political and Social Movements of the USSR, Archives of the Independent Press, (no date), p. 3.
30. Georgii Shakhnazarov, "Tri samoopredeleniia rossiiskoi demokratii," lzoestia (15 November 1991), p. 4.
31. Yitzhak M. Brudny, "The Heralds of Opposition to Perestroyka," Soviet Economy 5: 2 (1989): 162-200.
32. For an analysis of the distinction between the French and German models, see Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992).
33. For an analysis of the importance of the emergence of a state-building nationalism in postcommunist Russia, see Victor Zaslavsky, "Nationalism and the Democratic Transition in Postcommunist Societies " Daedalus 121: 2 (1992): 97-121.
34. Jadwiga Staniszkis, The Dynamics of the Breakthrough in Eastern Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. 215-248
35. and Gale Stokes, "The Social Origins of East European Politics," in The Origins of Backwardness in Eastern Europe: Economics and Politics from the Middle Ages until the Early Twentieth Century, ed. Daniel Chirot (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 210-251
36. G. I. Ruzavin, "Samoorganizatsiia i organizatsiia v razvitii obshchestva," Voprosy Filosofii No.8 (1995); 63-72.
37. The last liberal in Yeltsin's cabinet, Anatoli B. Chubais, the deputy prime minister, who authored Russia's privatization program, was forced out after the win by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation of a plurality of seats in Russia's December 1995 parliamentary elections. Alessandra Stanley, "A Key Reformer Resigns in Russia," New York Times, 17 January 1996, p. 1.
38. Liudvig Karapetian and Boris Ebzeev, "Budushchii za bezpartiinost'iu," Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 11 February 1994, p. 8.
39. For example, the Majority party, founded in February 1994, calls itself the "party of the middle class," though its main goal is the creation of a middle class and a rule of law state. Gleb Cherkasov and Yelena Tregubova, "Challenges: Majority Party Wants to Defend the Middle Class," Sevodnya (16 February 1994), p. 2
40. as translated in The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press 46: 7 (1994): 17-18. Russia's Democratic Choice, founded in June 1994 by Yegor Gaidar, is "devoted to the principles of liberalism," specifically "the full exercise of individual rights in the economic sphere and a strong state as a guarantor of those rights." Gleb Cherkasov and Dmitry Kuznets, Sevodnya (15 June 1994), p. 2
41. as translated in The Current Digest of the post-Soviet Press 46: 23 (1994): 1.
42. See B.K. Kantor, "Meniaetsia li rossiiskaia mental'nost'?" in "Rossiiskaia mental'nost' (materialy 'kruglogo stola'), Voprosy filosofii No. 1 (1994): 39-45, 44.
43. Aleksandr Akhiezer, "Russian Liberalism in the Face of Crisis," Russian Social Science Review 36: 2 (1995): 56-70
44. as translated from the original "Rossiiskii liberalizm pered litsom krizisa," Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremmenost' No.1 (1993): 61.
45. The dilemma was formulated as such in a Roundtable discussion sponsored by the journal Problems of Philosophy. See "Risk istoricheskogo vybora v Rossii (materialy 'kruglogo stola'), Voprosyfilosofii No. 5 (1994): 3.
46. Liberal theory in the west is at its own crossroads. See Christopher Wolfe and John P. Hittinger, Liberalism at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Contemporary Liberal Political Theory and Its Critics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994);
47. Mark Lilla, "The Other Velvet Revolution: Continental Liberalism and its Discontents," Daedalus 123: 2 (1994): 129-157
48. A. N. Medushevskii, "Demokratiia i tiraniia v novoe i noveishee vremia," Voprosyfilosofii No.10 (1993): 22.
49. A. N. Erygin, "Rossiiskii mentalitet i fenomen 'zapadnichestva' v russkoi kul'ture," in "Rossiiskaia mental'nost' (materialy 'kruglogo stola')," Voprosy filosofii No.1 (1994): 45-49, 48.
50. See I. K. Pantin, "Natsional'noi mentalitet i istoriia Rossii," and comments in "Rossiiskaia mental'nost' (materialy 'kruglogo stola'), pp. 35-36
51. and V. K. Kantor in the same roundtable discussion, p. 49-50
52. as well as N. A. Kosolapov, "Integrativnaia ideologiia dlia Rossii: intellectual'nyi i politicheskii vyzov," Voprosy filosofii No.1 (1994): 3-24.
53. For a discussion of the origins of the crisis, see Vladimir Konstantinov, "Soblazn vlasti," (an interview with sociologist Leonid Gordon) in Kuranti No.5 (5 November 1991).
54. V. I. Goiman, "Zakonodatel'stvo rossiiskoi federatsii: teoreticheskie voprosy, problemy i perspektivy," (krugly stol')," Gosudarstvo i prauo No. 10 (1992): 3-25,14.
55. Nikolai Troitskii, "Poslednii Sovet, Hi, parlamentarizm s tiazhelimy posledstviiami," Stolitsa No.42 (1993).
56. liudwig Karapetian and Boris Evzeev, "Budushchii bespartiinost'iu, inache, my obrechemy na revoliutsionnie potriaseniia," Nezavisimaia Gazeta (11 February 1994), p. 8.
57. O. I. Shkaratan and E. N. Gurenko, "From Statocracy to the Evolution of Civil Society," Soviet Sociology 30 (1991): 74.
58. A. G. Zdravomyslov, "Fundamental Problems of the Sociology of Conflict and the Dynamics of Mass Consciousness," in Sociological Research 33:3 (1994): 54-67
59. as translated from the original "Fundamental'nye problemy sotsiologii konflikta i dinamika massovogo soznania," Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia No.8 (1993): 12-21.
60. See Vladimir Shlapentokh, Public and Private Life of the Soviet People (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
61. B. G. Kapustin, "Krizis tsennostei i perspektivy rossiiskogo liberalizma," Liberalizm i demokratiia: opyt Zapada i perspektivy Ross";' (Moskva: Mezhdunarodnyi fond sotsial'no-ekonomicheskikh i politologicheskikh issledovanii, 1992), pp. 23-35,25.
62. M. M. Nazarov, "On the Distinctive Features of Political Consciousness in the Post-Perestroika Period," Sociological Research 33:3 (1994): 68-83
63. as translated from the original "Ob osobennostiakh politicheskogo soznanie v postperestroechnyi period," Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia No. 8, (1993):37-46.
64. A. V. Glukhova, "Politicheskii tsentrizm v posttotalitarnom obshchestve: opyt i problemy," Gosudarstvo i pravo No.3 (1993): 102-112
65. Medushevskii, "Demokratiia i tiraniia."
66. See A. S. Panarin, "Protsessy modernizatsii i mentalitet," in "Rossiiskaia mental'nost'," Voprosy filosofii No.1 (1994): 33-36 for the argument against the relevance of liberalism in conditions of Russian modernization processes.
67. Chicherin argued that the political and economic principles of liberalism must be implemented by a strong and effective state which alone could protect Russia from external and internal disintegrating forces. See Erygin, "Rossiiskii mentalitet i fenomen 'zapadnichestva' v russkoi kul'ture," pp. 48-49.
68. For a discussion of Chicherin's conservative liberalism, see Andrzej Walicki, A History of Russian Thought from the Enlightenment to Marxism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1979)
69. and G. M. Hamburg, Boris Chicherin and Early Russian Liberalism, 1828-1866 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992).
70. Kagarlitsky puts Kiva in the category of authoritarians along with Migranian; see Boris Kagarlitsky, Disintegration of the Monolith, pp. 39-40.
71. Kiva, however, has far less of a refined program than the former and emphasizes in general terms the need for immediate broad social support for political rule, a support characterized in positive terms as populism. See Aleksei Kiva, "Perespektivy Rossiiskogo liberalizma," Nezavisimaia Gazeta (11 May 1994), p. 5.
72. Kiva, "Perspektivy rossiiskogo liberalizma," p. 5.
73. See Andranik Migranian, "Avtoritarnyi rezhim v Rossii: kakovy perspektivy" Nezavisimaia Gazeta (4 November 1993), p. 1. Here Migranian justifies in the aftermath of the October 1993 storming of the renegade Russian parliament his theoretical model, formulated in 1989, which suggested that a period of authoritarianism was inevitable as Russia traversed the path from totalitarianism to democracy.
74. Quoted in Elizabeth Teague, "Russian Government Seeks 'Social Partnership,'" RFE/RL Research Report 1: 25 (19 June 1992): 17-18. Jadwiga Staniszkis records a similar comment made by a candidate for the position of minister of industry in Poland. T. Syryjczyk, speaking before a parliamentary confirmation committee, said, "I represent subjects that do not yet exist."
75. Quoted in Staniszkis, Dynamics of the Breakthrough in Eastern Europe, p. 184
76. Viktor Sheinis, "Politicheskaia interliudiia: Rossiia mezhdy 93-m i 96-m godom," Nezavisimaia Gazeta (13 July 1994), p. 5.
77. Goiman, "Zakonodatel'stvo rossiiskoi federatsii: teoreticheskie voprosy, problemy i perspkektivy (krugly stol')," p. 13.
78. V. M. Baranov, "Zakonodatel'stvo rossiiskoi federatsii: theoieticheskie voprosi, problemy i perspektivy (krugly stol')," Gosudarstvo i pravo No.10 (1992): 14-15.
79. Most representative of this view is Alexander M. Yakovlev, Striving for Law in a Lawless Land: Memoirs of a Russian Reformer (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996).
80. "Zaiavlenie soveta liberal'noi fraktsii DPR," unpublished mimeograph (8 February 1992).
81. This represents another historical theme of Russian liberalism. The liberal Russian intelligentsia in the nineteenth century was also fearful of releasing the "stikhiini" or destructive forces of the masses, one reason that they emphasized political liberties over broadly based social reforms.
82. These same moderate liberals, for example, opposed Yeltsin's military policies in Chechnya in the winter of 1994-1995 and criticized the president for not solving the crisis through negotiation and political means.
83. Boris Zhukov, "'Okhota na ved'm strogo po litsenziiam," Stolitsa No.45 (1993): 1-3.
84. "Chto takoe demokratiia? Parlamentarizm i pravitel'stvenniia sistemaopredelenie i razgranichenie," Polls No.3 (1992): 38-45;
85. G. Rormozer, "Puti liberalizma v Rossii," Polis No.1 (1993): 31-36.
86. See B. G. Kapustin, "Krizis tsennostei," p. 35
87. and Novikova and Sizemskaia, "Liberal Traditions" p. 50.
88. For an analysis of Hessen's liberalism, see the chapter, "Sergius Hessen: A Post-Revolutionary Synthesis," in Andrzej Walicki, Legal Philosophies of Russian Liberalism (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992), pp. 404-465
89. Kapustin, "Krizis tsennostei i perspektivy rossiiskogo liberalizma," p. 33.
90. Kapustin, "Krizis tsennostei i perspektivy rossiiskogo liberalizma," p. 33, Ibid.
91. For the programs of Russia's major political parties going into the December 1995 parliamentary elections, see Michael McFaul and Nikolai Petrov, eds., Previewing Russia's 1995 Parliamentary Elections (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1995).
92. "[That segment of the ruling class that received nonlabor incomes] . . . had to find legal forms for the commercial exploitation of the state sector of the economy." A. N. Kochetov, "Sources of the 'New' Social Structure," Sociological Research 33:3 (1994): 84-95
93. as translated from the original "Istoki 'novoi' sotsial'noi struktury," Svobodnaia Mysl' No.9 (1993): 66-73.
94. "Istoki 'novoi' sotsial'noi struktury," Svobodnaia Mysl' No.9 (1993): 66-73, Ibid.
95. Irina Savateyeva, Izvestia (18 May 1994), p. 2
96. translated as "About Those Who Rule Us," in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press 46: 20 (1994) 8-9.
97. V.B. Pastukhov, "Stanovlenie rossiiskoi gosudarstvennosti i konstitutsionnyi protsess: politologicheskii aspekt," Gosudarstvo i pravo No.2 (1993), 89-96, pp. 94-95.
98. Aleksei Kiva, "Perspektivy rossiiskogo liberalizma," p. 5.
99. Kagarlitsky, Disintegration of the Monolith, passim.
100. Stephen Whitefield and Geoffrey Evans, "The Russian Election of 1993: Public Opinion and the Transition Experience," Post-Soviet Affitirs 10:1 (1994): 38-60.
101. The first wave was based on the principles of a liberal monarchy and began with the reforms of Catherine the Great and ended with the failure of the Decembrists in 1825. The second wave, comprised of the fight for political rights, lasted from the great reforms of 1861 to the 1890s. The third wave, in which classical liberalism was greatly influenced by socialist activism, lasted fom the 1890s until 1917. The fourth wave began in the first years of Russian sovereignty from the USSR. Lidiia Novikova and Irina Sizemskaia, "Liberal Traditions in the Cultural-Historical Experience of Russia," Russian Studies in Philosophy 33:3 (1994-1995): 6-25
102. translated from "Liberal'nye traditsii v kurtumo-istoricheskom opyte Rossii," Swbodnaia Mysl' No.15 (1993): 67-80.
103. "Liberal'nye traditsii v kurtumo-istoricheskom opyte Rossii," Swbodnaia Mysl' No.15 (1993): Ibid., p. 18.
104. Aleksandr Akhiezer, "Russian Liberalism in the Face of Crisis," pp. 56-70.
105. Aleksandr Akhiezer, "Russian Liberalism in the Face of Crisis," Ibid., p. 57.
106. Stein Rokkan, "Dimensions of State Formation and Nation-Building," in Charles Tilly, ed., The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 562-601;
107. Michael McFaul, "State Power, Institutional Change, and the Politics of Privatization in Russia," World Politics 47 (1995): 210-243
108. Sergei Chuprinin, "Choice. Notes of a Russian Liberal: The Experience of Self-Identification," Russian Social Science Review 36:1 (1995): 58-83, 66-67
109. as translated from the original, "Vybor. Zametki russkogo liberala: opyt samoidentifikatsii," Znamia No.7 (1993): 174-89;
110. Leonid Gordon, "Russia at the Crossroads," Government and Opposition 30:1 (1995): 3-25,23;
111. A. N. Medushevskii, "Demokratiia i tiraniia," 13-15.
112. Akhiezer, "Russian Liberalism in the Face of Crisis," pp. 65-69.
113. Medushevskii, "Demokratiia i tiraniia," p. 23.
114. Gordon, "Russia at the Crossroads," p. 23.
115. One example of the many accusations is in Vladimir Mironov, "Tol'ko rossiiskie sotsial-demokraty mogut prevzoiti po politicheskoi sile KPRF," Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 16 December 1995, pp. 1-2.
116. Medushevskii, "Demokratiia i tiraniia";
117. Gordon, "Russia at the Crossroads";
118. Chuprinin, "Choice, Notes of a Russian Liberal."
119. Already in 1990, Ralf Dahrendorf, in Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (New York: Random House, 1990), hinted that political leadership must provide the critical foundation for democratization in East Central Europe and the then-USSR until that time when a constitution and civil society could be institutionalized. See pp. 98-99.
120. See A. B. Zubov and V. A. Kolosov, "What Is Russia Seeking? Value Orientations of Russian Voters, 12 December 1993, Russian Social Science Review 37: 1 (1996): 3-36
121. as translated from the original, "Chto ishchet Rossiia? Tsennostnye orientatsii rossiiskikh izbiratelei 12 dekabria 1993 goda," Polis No.1 (1994): 93-112.
122. Whitefield and Evans, "The Russian Election of 1993";
123. Jerry F. Hough, "The Russian Election of 1993: Public Attitudes Toward Economic Reform and Democratization," Post-Soviet Affairs, 10:1 (1994): 1-37;
124. Michael Urban, "December 1993 as a Replication of Late-Soviet Electoral Practices," Post-Soviet Affairs 10: 2 (1994): 127-158
125. See Thomas F. Remington and Steven S. Smith, "The Development of Parliamentary Parties in Russia," Legislative Studies Quarterly 20:4 (1995): 457-489
126. For details of the privatization process, see Peter Rutland, "A Twisted Path toward a Market Economy," Transition (15 February 1995), pp. 12-18.
127. Open Media Research Institute, Daily Digest No.249 (27 December 1995), p. 2.
128. See the interview with Constitutional Court judge Marat V. Baglai by Konstantin Katanian, "Dva goda nazad nachala deistvovat' rossiiskaia konstitutsiia," Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 25 December 1995, p. 2.
129. Sergei Kovalev, "A Letter of Resignation," New York Review of Books, 29 February 1996, pp. 29-30 as translated from Izvestia (24 January 1996).
130. Dmitry Kuznets, "Positions: The Fate of the Constitution," Sevodnya (27 November 1993), p. 2
131. as translated in The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press 45: 48 (1993): 4-6.
132. The most likely liberal candidate for this position going into the December 1995 Russian parliamentary elections was Grigorii Yavlinski, leader of the liberal Yabloko party. The poor showing of the party in the elections, however, (Yabloko received 45 seats in the 450 seat Duma, as compared to the 158 seats of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation), does not bode well for the liberals.
133. Chuprinin, "Choice: Notes of a Russian Liberal" p. 71.