Empire in Search of the Common Good. Property in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
29.99 €
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Empire in Search of the Common Good. Property in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
29.99 €
It is generally accepted that in pre-revolutionary Russia private property was not sufficiently protected and that Russian liberalism failed to substantiate the ideals of individualism and freedom of property. However, the book by E. Rules offers a completely new look at this problem. It shows that, contrary to popular belief, the autocratic state guarded the interests of the owners, while liberal thinkers, politicians, and experts advocated the restriction of exaggerated private rights in favor of society. E. Rule analyzes the emergence and development of ideas and institutions of “public property” in several areas – environmental protection, the development of hydropower and the use of natural resources, the protection of artistic and archaeological monuments, as well as literary property. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the fate of Russian forests and Orthodox icons, architectural masterpieces and works of great writers was associated with the revision of the property system. Lawyers and architects, art historians and foresters, engineers and literary critics advocated for society to become the full owner of “common things.” As the author shows, Russian pre-revolutionary liberalism was not individualistic – it developed the ideas of civil society, built on the public ownership of national wealth. Ekaterina Prava is a historian, professor at Princeton University (USA).
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Rossica History