Motherland: A Philosophical History of Russia

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Rookery Press, 2007 - History - 331 pages
This introduction to the key Russian thinkers of the past 200 years includes chapters on the key pre-Revolutionary philosophers, Herzen, Belinsky, Chaadaev, Bakunin, Stankevich and Turgenev. Author Chamberlain finds that during the last two centuries Russian intellectuals have asked two fundamental questions: "what makes a good man?" and "what is the right way to live?" The nineteenth-century ideal of a happy man living in a just society became, in Russia, a quest to effect wholesale transformation of society. Chamberlain shows how this moral passion, manifesting itself in philosophy and literature, existed in both pre- and post-revolutionary Russia. She reveals that 1917 did not represent the watershed we once thought, and shows how the dream of a plain and simple life reached its negative apotheosis under Lenin.--From publisher description.

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Contents

The Beautiful Souls
20
The New
47
4
60
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

The topics of Lesley Chamberlain's numerous books range from food to philosophy. She is a regular contributor to newspapers & journals in Britain & the United States, including "The Times" & "The Times Literary Supplement" (both of London). Her last book was "Nietzsche in Turin". She lives in London.

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