ABSTRACT
Max Weber's nationalism was one reason for his interest in Russian politics. From the point of view of his political allegiance, Weber represented a not atypical amalgam of late nineteenth-century German nationalism and power-political inclinations, on the one hand, and democratic idealism, on the other. Weber's interest in Russian politics, it is obvious, had deeper motives than mere fascination with events; indeed, it was intimately connected with his two most vital concerns: the future of Germany, and the future of free society. Weber's first study dealing with Russia, Zur Lage der burgerlichen Demokratie in Russland, which he completed in February 1906, was written with the assistance of Bogdan Kistiakovskii, a Russian liberal active in the Soiuz Osvobozhdzheniia. Weber spelled out the reasons for his change of attitude toward Russia in the course of a speech delivered in October 1916 on the subject, "Germany Among the European World Powers".
