ABSTRACT
Boris Chicherin (1828–1904) was the leading theorist of Russian liberalism. His liberalism was based firmly on metaphysical idealism. Over the course of his long career, he moved from a Hegelian conservative liberalism to a more Kantian classical liberalism. His later works in particular are expositions of the classical liberal principles of human dignity and personhood, human rights, freedom of conscience, and the rule of law. Seeking to guide Russian social and political thought to a middle path between conservatism and radicalism, Chicherin came under attack from both sides. After a few years as a professor of law at Moscow University in the 1860s, he spent the rest of his career as an independent scholar. An atheist in his youth, Chicherin eventually embraced a modernist Christian faith, which he elaborated in Science and Religion (1879). He was critical of Vladimir Soloviev’s mysticism and concept of theocracy. In Property and the State (1882–83), he presented his mature philosophy of law, economy, government, and morality. Chicherin also published works defending freedom of conscience and criticizing the Russian state’s oppression of the Polish and Jewish communities of the Russian Empire.
