PREFACE THIS study has been made in the hope that it would fill a gap which exists in the history of sociological thought and theory. A history which as yet has not appeared in English, Dr. Paul Barth's "Die Geschichte der Philosophie als Soziologie", is perhaps the best work on the subject in German. A more recent work on the subject is by Faustus Squillace, "La classification des doctrines sociologiques ". Neither of these writers, however, does more than merely mention Russian sociology nor says anything of the place it holds in the social-political history of Russia. To keep this study of Russian Sociology within certain fixed limitations it became necessary to exclude the Russian belletristic literature which contains a good deal of sociological thought, as for example, the novels of Turgeniev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others. It also seemed expedient not to present the work of authors who only re-interpret the theories of others and who have had no influence in directing the general trend of Russian Sociology. Such authors are, for example, Smolikovsky, who expounded Comte's system to the Russians, and Stronin, who wrote on sociological analogies. Of the three parts in this study the first may be regarded as introductory to the latter two. Part II is an analysis of the principal Russian sociological schools, and Part III contains the miscellaneous theories which have entered into the province of Russian sociology. There is no uniform system of spelling Russian names in English. An attempt was made to transliterate all Russian 7] 7 words based upon the English pronunciation of the alphabet. The Russianized name of the Russian capital " Petrograd" has been used (instead of St. Petersburg) throughout with the exception of quotations. In conclusion, it is a pleasure to state that I owe my interest in sociology to the inspiring teaching of Professor Franklin Henry Giddings and to other members of the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University. Acknowledgment is also due to Mrs. Alice Sterne Gitterman and to my wife, both of whom assisted me greatly. NEW YORK, MAY, 1915. J. F. H. CONTENTS PAGE Catherine II, her social theories and practical policies.. The Decembrist movement, its representative leaders and theorizers. The nationalistic trend, Slavophils and Russophils. The Westernizing trend and its principal theorizers The great reform period and its consequences PAGE His Theocratic ideal and hatred of democracy His synthetic theory of social evolution and its application to Critique of Leontiev's theories. His idea of progress Conclusion. THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF THE WESTERNISTS 3. Herzen the precursor of Russian populism : His disappointment with Western Europe. . His hope for a special social-economic evolution of Russia His theory of the disintegration of masses by thought. The state and other institutions of control in their relation to |