Abstract:
Liberalism was introduced to Russia in the 1820's, but was not openly advocated till the 1850's when Chicheren, Helsen and the like began to advertise it. Widely spread, though, liberalism was mainly used as a derogatory term by the Russians. Lacking in historical and cultural traditions and public support, the Russian liberalism was taken as a social carrier only by part of the aristocracy, intellectuals and the bureaucracy. Those Russians with libral attitudes and activators in local self-government offices in Russia dare never self-appoint "liberalists." As a result, liberalism never rose as the mainline ideology. In contrast with liberalism in the West, the Russian liberalism was merely a "poorly-developed liberalism".
