By focusing on the Russian aspect, this study adds an important and neglected element to the intellectual history of liberalism. It does so at a time when transnational conversation about liberalism and its philosophy is important in areas beyond academia, and can be expected to become even more so in the near future. On the one hand, we are increasingly aware of the fragility of liberal-democratic practices and institutions (both in countries with long-standing liberal traditions and those without), and, on the other, liberalism has consolidated its status as the ‘least bad’ political ideology. The Russian part of this history, in the decades leading up to the October Revolution, offers fascinating insights into liberalism’s internal contradictions.