Joseph de Maistre: Dialogue with Russia

Joseph de Maistre, philosopher and politician, envoy of the King of Sardinia at the Russian court (1803–1817), left a significant mark on the intellectual life of Russia. In the monograph by Professor V.S. Parsamov from the National Research University "Higher School of Economics" (HSE), the Russian relations of Maistre are explored as an ideological dialogue that stretched throughout the 19th century and continued into the 20th century.

The focus is on two issues: Maistre's perception of contemporary Russian politics and its history, as well as the reception of Maistre's ideas by Russian thinkers from his contemporaries to the philosophers of the Silver Age. The author examines the ideological and personal contacts of Maistre with Alexander I and his circle: A.S. Shishkov, P.V. Chichagov, A.S. Sturdza, S.P. Svechin, P.Ya. Chaadaev, the Decembrists, and others. The dialogue with Maistre was continued by new generations of Russian thinkers. His ideological legacy was complexly transformed into the ideologies of Slavophile thought, and his ideas resonated with Tyutchev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky.

In the late 19th – 20th centuries, Maistre attracted the attention of Vladimir Solovyov, Peter Struve, Semyon Frank, and Nikolai Berdyaev.