PhD project
This work is dedicated to liberalism in post-Soviet Russia, its development, ideological convictions and political goals in the period 1988-2022. The double failure of Russian liberalism - after 1905 and after 1991 - calls for a differentiated historical explanation. Using selected actors from three age cohorts, it systematically examines how Russian liberals defined themselves, what ideas guided them and why they ultimately failed with their project of liberalizing the state and politics.
The dissertation explores these three generations, their strategies and ideas in the respective historical context of three phases: The rise of the liberals (1988-1993/96), the return of autocracy and the crisis of Russian liberalism (1997-2010), and the role of the liberals in the opposition to Putin's regime (2011-2022). The aim of this work is to identify new caesuras in the process of liberalization of post-Soviet Russia and the establishment of an authoritarian state and to trace the personal and political transformation of the liberals in Russia.
