Theory of “small deeds” as a populist practice of the middle class

Abstract

The article is a review of the book by V.V. Zverev Essays on the Intellectual Heritage of Ya.V. Abramov (Moscow: RUDN University Press, 2024. 157 p.). Although, as the author argues, an extensive and fundamental book on the life and work of Yakov Vasilyevich Abramov (1858-1906), a remarkable Russian publicist and ideologist of the moderate populist movement, has not yet been written, the monograph under review is a valuable, historically and sociologically sound and thorough work about the creator of the so-called “Abramovshchina”, or, according to the more traditional scientific-publicist discourse, the “theory of those small deeds” that “make up the lives of millions” (P. 28).

Keywords

• ya.v. abramov
• intellectual heritage
• “theory of small deeds”
• populism
• intelligentsia
• people
• ideology