Liberalism in Russia: from the margins of Russian politics to an instrument of geopolitical othering

In January 2016, an interesting essay was published by a Russian journalist, titled ‘Is liberalism the future for Russia?’. The fact that this essay was promoted by the British Open Democracy Russia Organisation shows where to find proponents of Russian liberalism: in the margins of Russian politics, or even beyond its borders. With a president that stresses the importance of traditional, conservative, Russian values and is openly critical of the West and their ‘aggressive promotion of non-traditional , neoliberal values’ – an atmosphere has been created in which not only political liberalism no longer has a place on the political spectrum, but the notion of liberalism is being actively used to identify ‘foreign elements’ in Russian politics and society. This geopolitical othering of ‘liberalism’ is not new however. This paper will illustrate how from the late 18th century onwards, as liberal ideas took hold in Russia under Catherina the Great, most of these ideas where seldom used outside the context of autocracy. In this sense, these ideas were considered as instigators for change as well as for conservatism. Especially after the critical junctures of 1789 and 1812, the latter interpretation took hold among Russia’s ruling class, where liberalism became a tool for geopolitical othering. Yet simultaneously, liberal ideas were also internalized by Russia’s rulers and gradually changed the nature of Russian autocracy itself, as Whitaker’s concept of the ‘reforming tsar’ illustrates.