SUMMARY:

In this article, Oleg Budnitskii introduces the publication of correspondence between Vasily Maklakov and Oskar (Israel) Gruzenberg spanning the period of one year: January 1933 to January 1934. In Late Imperial Russia, they were known as leading lawyers and public figures, who conversed on ethical problems with Leo Tolstoy and led the liberal opposition to the regime. Occasionally, their professional paths crossed, for example, during the infamous Beilis trial (1913), when Maklakov and Gruzenberg led the defense team. At the same time, they were divided on many political issues, as well as by personal attitudes. The rise of the Nazis to power in Germany provoked Maklakov and Gruzenberg, now living in emigration in France, to discuss the new political reality in Europe: that of dictatorships based on massive nationalist mobilization. They discuss the prospects of the Soviet regime in this new reality, which leads them to a bigger question of the “nature” of the Russian people, the historical roots of the Bolshevik Revolution, and their own integrity in politics and as professionals.