Edmund Burke, his readers and admirers in 18th century Russia. Part one

The interest in the legacy of Edmund Burke (1730–1797), the celebrated British orator, statesman, philosopher, and publicist, has remained largely outside the scope of specialised research in Russia. It is evident that Burke’s incisive critiques of the French Revolution, coupled with his staunch advocacy for English liberties, parliamentary democracy, and constitutional monarchy, rendered him a controversial figure within both the “liberating” and “conservative” schools of Russian social thought. The objective of this article is to address the existing gap in the literature by collating, elucidating, and analysing the facts that bear testimony to the perception of Burke’s personality and major writings, specifically “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” (1757) and “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790), by his Russian contemporaries.