The Russian Empire in the Nineteenth Century

The absence of clear cut, western style liberalism in the russian empire in the nineteenth century is rooted in the fact that the russia was not really operating under the same social economic and political conditions as western erope. So even if a russian were temperamentally inclined towards a liberal position, they would often wind up drawing different conclusions about how to feasibly pursue their ends. And probably the biggest difference, as we'll see, is their attitude toward state power.