The historian and economist Ivan K. Babst

The essay examines the biography and intellectual heritage of Ivan Babst as a representative of early Russian liberalism. The author identifies the features of initial national liberal concept through studying the nuances of the liberals’ perception of the role of economic processes in social construction. Babst was one of the creators of early liberal concept formed in the second half of the 1850s and in the 1860s. He has done the greatest contribution to the elaboration of the economic program of the early Russian liberalism being a supporter of the idea of the free trade, of reducing the government involvement into the economy and of other classical liberal values. However, Babst used to argue that for the positive reception of the European liberal experiment in Russia the national adaptation of the liberal values is necessary.