This book studies the work of five Russian liberal thinkers against the general background of Russian history, literature and thought in that period.

1. Russian intellectual life in the 1840s and 1850s; 2. Timofey Nikolayevich Granovsky (1813-1855); 3. Vasiliy Pegtrovich Botkin (1811-1869); 4. Pavel Vasilyevich Annekov (1813-1887); 5. Aleksandr Vasilyevich Druzhinin (1824-1864); 6. Konstantin Dmitriyevich Kavelin (1818-1885); conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.