"A pathetic desire for inner peace": the second year of World War I as reflected in the liberal mirror, "Vestnik Evropy" (1915-1916)

This article deals with the public position of the Russian liberal journal "Vestnik Evropy" ("Bulletin of Europe") in the period from mid 1915 to late 1916. It analyses the themes and content of the journal's articles, the relation of the leading publicists of the journal to matters of domestic and foreign policy. It focuses on the ways in which the journal reflected the social and political crisis in Tsarist Russia and the conflict between the State Duma and the government. It concludes that during this period "Vestnik Evropy" paid more attention than previously to the social consequences of the war. The publicists showed the decline of the war's popularity. From July 1915 the journal supported the parliamentary opposition and sharply criticized the government of Nicholas II for refusing to carry out liberal reforms.