A New Study on the History of Russian Liberal Centrism in the Early 20th Century. Review of Tsentrizm v rossiiskom liberalizme nachala XX veka [Centrism in Russian liberalism in the early 20th century] by N.B. Khailova (Moscow: Institut rossiiskoi istorii RAN; Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ, 2022)

Abstract

The article analyzes the monograph by Nina B. Khailova, a senior researcher at the Centre for the History of Russia in the 19th – early 20th Centuries of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to centrism in Russian liberalism in the early 20th century. The work under review is the first comprehensive study of this problem in historiography. It has been shown that based on a wide range of sources, some of which were published by its author, the monograph thoroughly studies the whole complex of issues concerning organizational features, social base, programmatic and tactical attitudes, and the main directions and features of the Duma and extra-parliamentary activities of centrist liberal parties. The reviewer notes an essential role of the appendix to the monograph (which is a biographical dictionary that includes information about the main figures of the liberal centrism of the early 20th century) and emphasizes a significant contribution of the monograph under review to the study of the history of Russian liberalism.

Keywords

• russian liberalism
• centrism
• political parties
• parliamentarism
• state duma
• historiography