Lev Tikhomirov and his project of “national reforms”

The unusual political fate of L.A. Tikhomirov, who went from a revolutionary narodnik and member of Narodnay Volya to an apologist of the Russian autocratic monarchy, still attracts the attention of humanities scholars. His monarchist ideas, which made him one of the classics of Russian conservative thought, are also actively studied. Moreover, L. Tikhomirov in his literary and public activities in the service of the autocracy showed himself as a true conservative reformer, who developed a whole system aimed at transforming the entire system of the Russian monarchy. 

The purpose of the article is to analyze the concept of “national reforms” proposed by L. Tikhomirov for the transformation of Russian government. 

His proposals included changes in the entire system of religious policy in the spirit of state-church symphony. Comprehensive reform of the state social and class policy in the form of the creation of peculiar corporations for the new social groups that emerged in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century. A return to a proper “governing policy” of the country, where there would be no overpowering bureaucracy and party politicking, and governance would utilize a combination of bureaucratic forces with social forces. His reform projects also included proposals for transformations in the socio-economic sphere. In this matter, L. Tikhomirov was a supporter of the creation of a self-sufficient, independent from the influence of external factors economy – autarky, developing under the aegis of the monarchical state that regulates all economic processes. 

The conclusion is that despite the authorities’ rejection of his ideas and proposals in their entirety, some of them have not lost their relevance today. Among them, L. Tikhomirov’s ideas about the importance of realizing Russia’s historical place in the world as a bearer of original Orthodox culture deserve to be noted. His thoughts on the uniqueness of the Russian state-political system, which he deduced from the special geographical and political factors of our country’s existence, and hence, in his opinion, the impossibility of absolute copying of Western European legal, economic and social models.

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