№ 5 - 2005
Kiryanov I.K.
Failure of the Premiere of a Liberal Play: First Essay of Russian Transit

The article offers interpretation of the political processes that were going on in Russia in early 20th century, as an unsuccessful essay of democratic transit. In the author’s estimation, Russian transit that started in 1904, after successfully passing the liberalization phase was interrupted at the democratization phase. Among factors that were hampering transformation of the country’s political system, the author reckons lack of development of the middle class, feebleness of civil society structures, prevalence of the subject-type political culture and, finally, defeats of the Russian army in the course of World War I. In the meantime, as the main cause of the failure of Russian transit of early 20th century, he points to lack of a pact between the reformers among the highest bureaucracy, on the one hand, and the liberal opposition, on the other, conclusion of which was impeded not only by the limited nature of the “democratic” potential of the former, but also by the position of the latter, which suffered short sight.