Discourses of freedom in Russian intellectual history. Anthology

The history of Russia is usually represented as the history of the state with its victories and achievements or as the history of state oppression and lawlessness. Such narratives do not leave the place of the tradition of freedom, creating a false feeling of its absence and nourishing a stereotype, according to which Russia is alien to Russia. In this anthology, the first attempt was made to systematically mapping the Russian discourse of freedom in all its thematic diversity and a wide time range: from the end of the 18th century to this day. The book includes the texts of thinkers, publicists, writers and political figures who protect, criticize, or re -determine the concept of freedom. Consideration of a set of problems associated with it in the context of public discussions allows you to see the connection between the semantics of freedom and the social practices in which it is formed. And the comparison of authors of different eras and political views within each section allows us to detect discursive similarities over ideological discrepancies (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, etc) The compilers of the book are experts in the field of Russian intellectual history Nikolai Plotnikov and Svetlana Kirshbaum (RURA University Bochuma, Germany)
compilers: S. Kirshbaum, N. Plotnikov