Liberal-Conservative Synthesis: the Experience of Creating the Concept of Evolutionary Modernization of Russia in the Second half of the 19th Century

The article is devoted to consideration of the liberal-conservative conception of Russia formed in the second half of the 19th century by a number of Russian public figures and statesmen, the most prominent of which were B.N. Chicherin, K.D. Cavelin and A.D. Gradovsky. The author reveals the main stages of modernization of the social and political system in Russia suggested by the liberals. The author deals with the concrete projects of changes and reforms, characterizes the methods of achieving these aims. The article reveals the essence of the liberal-conservative "anticonstitutionalism" of the 60s and the first half of the 70s of the 19th century, identifies the main arguments, used by the representatives of this social thought trend for proving their opinion. One issue is considered separately: the draft of the administrative reform by K.D. Kavelin, having offered a wide reorganization of the supreme bodies of state administration and the nature of their formation in order to prepare the basis for establishing of representative government in Russia in the future. The article characterizes the situation in Russia at the turn of 1870 - 1880s, under the circumstances of which there is a gradual transition of liberal conservatives to the idea of immediate creation of representative bodies in Russia. The author analyzes in detail the following: the main arguments and motivations, having induced them to introducing the requirements as well as the projects themselves, devoted to the establishment of elected representative bodies that were supposed to be integrated into the existing government management, complementing and improving it. In the article special attention is drawn to the harmonious combination of liberal - reformational and conservative-preserving principles that, according to its authors, on the one hand, must have promoted the evolution of social and political relations in the country, have avoided their stagnation and degradation, and on the other - to prevent development of destructive, radical tendencies having threatened chaos and lawlessness