ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to formulate universalism in the broader context of Enlightenment thought and to compare it with an equally powerful development—the universalism of the Russian intelligentsia. The torrent with which Peter the Great sought to irrigate his arid Russian civilization was followed by a more or less steady stream of French influence. The chapter discusses the direct influence of Enlightenment values on Russian thinking during the periods of their penetration into Russia, under Catherine 2 and Alexander 1. It describes study the universalist values of the Russian Intelligentsia during the rest of the nineteenth century. It is useful to distinguish between two forms of universalism, "abstract" and "concrete." Concrete universalism involves institutions as agents of union between the individual and humanity. Despite considerable individual differences of approach and emphasis, the men of letters of the French Enlightenment, or philosophes, emerged from the dark woods of tradition with certain ideas and values as common property.
