The article analyzes the evolution of political views held by the prominent Russian thinker B.N. Chicherin on a key problem of Russian statehood – the problem of mutual alienation between state power and society. Based on an analysis of his publicistic works from 1855–1900, the transformation of Chicherin’s views is traced. Chicherin’s initial optimism, rooted in his belief in the possibility of a fruitful union between a reforming monarchy and an enlightened society during the era of Alexander II’s Great Reforms, gradually gives way to deep pessimism. The article identifies four stages of this evolution: optimistic (belief in cooperation), skeptical (disappointment in the authorities’ readiness for dialogue), a brief period of hope associated with the accession of Alexander III, and finally, a critical stage, where Chicherin concludes that a systemic crisis exists, one unsolvable within the framework of the existing order. The main focus of the article’s analysis is Chicherin’s diagnosis of a self-reproducing vicious cycle: the authorities, pathologically distrusting public initiative and seeing in it only a threat, respond with repression and the rolling back of reforms, which, in turn, radicalizes society and reinforces its total distrust of the authorities. According to Chicherin, this schism led to the authorities replacing the strategy for developing Russian statehood with a short-sighted policy of forceful control over society. In his final work, “Russia on the Eve of the Twentieth Century,” Chicherin makes a tragic forecast, predicting inevitable socio-political upheavals that would challenge the very existence of Russian statehood.
Sergey Chizhkov (Wed,) studied this question.