MISCELLANY “VEKHI” IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC DEBATE ON WAYS OF RUSSIA’S DEVELOPMENT: EXPERIENCE OF INTROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

The authors restore the socio-political context of criticism of the intelligentsia in the miscellany “Vekhi” ("Signposts" in translation). It was published in 1909 in Moscow and represented a collection of articles of Russian philosophers of the early XXth century on Russian intelligentsia and its role in the history of Russia. The article reconstructs the social and political context of intellectuals’ criticism in the miscellany “Signposts”. The authors examine the reaction of different ideological groups to the appearance of that book, trace internal ideological discrepancies between the miscellany’sauthors.The authors expose the revision of the settled view of the collection as a mouthpiece of the Black-Hundred party or Cadets ideology, indicating that its conceptual content allows to talk largely about its anti-Cadet orientation. The article highlights some ideas that united the authors of the collection, but deny their common theoretical positions.

“Vekhi”, Russian revolution, Russian intelligentsia, Constitutional Democratic (Cadet) Party, Mikhail Gershenzon, Pyotr Struve, Semen Frank, Nikolai Berdyayev, Sergei Bulgakov