On some actual aspects of the interpretation of the liberal tradition in Russia

Abstract

The article examines the key moments of the transformation of the liberal tradition in Russia in the context of analysis of the main directions of the evolution of liberal ideological discourse and liberal culture in Western Europe and the United States. The need for such an analysis is determined, primarily, by the fact that since the early 1990s the Western liberal stereotypes became ideological basis for the new Russian political elite and the dominant trend of state propaganda. However, the main fact is often overlooked: in the XX century Russian liberalism has twice been compromised so that in the short-term the hopes for the revival of the liberal ideas are left. The crisis of the liberal tradition delineated also the West. Liberalism is undergoing there very significant transformation, with far-reaching cultural and political implications. In particular, at the end of XX – beginning of XXI cc. more active role in Western public discourse began to play the radical neo-conservative versions of an ideology that combined conservative program of political reforms with a strong libertarian (neoliberal) rhetoric, which is actively used by the ruling circles of the USA and Western Europe for ideological influence on the political elites of Russia as like as the Central and Eastern Europe during the so-called “velvet revolutions”. At the same time in the late twentieth century, more and more clearly and sharply came to the fore anti-liberal thought and criticism that has always evolved in parallel with liberalism itself and almost never stopped its existence.