Across Europe, the modern concept of civil society has its origins in G. W F. Hegel's definition of civil society as the realm of free market relations beyond the family and distinct from government. But prior to Hegel, theorists such as John Locke, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith and various French Enlightenment figures concerned with the problem of making society civil used 'civil society' as a synonym for the political state.[35] Echoing this definition, historians of eighteenth-century Western and Central Europe see in the activities of constituted bodies - diets, provincial estates, parlements, Estates General and the English Parliament - the appearance of a 'new politics' of open contestation in which the corporate institutions of'absolute monarchy' became absorbed into an emergent 'public sphere' situated between the private sphere ofthe household and the sphere of public/political authority represented by the state.[36] In the public sphere, sometimes termed 'bourgeois' because of its roots in the capitalist market economy, the freedom and openness of relationships within the private household expanded into the arena of public/political authority. Through the development of autonomous civic organisations, the commercialisation of print culture, and the formation of communities structured around sites of sociability, the public sphere effectively limited the 'absolute' power of the state to the point where public/political authority became the common domain of society and government. The public sphere thus provided the setting for the emergence of a new kind of civil society organisationally independent of and more readily opposed to the political state.[37]
Inbroad outline, the development of Russian civil society followed the familiar Europeanpattern. But in Russia, priorto the mid- or even the late nineteenth century, it would be misleading to speak of a politically organised civil society independent of the state. A realm of free market relations (Hegel's civil society) did exist, though often illicitly and without legal protections (remember the life of serf entrepreneur Nikolai Shipov), as did a pre-political literary public sphere grounded in print culture, learned and philanthropic societies, social clubs, commercial associations and masonic lodges. At the same time, however, the Russian reading public remained minuscule, and throughout the eighteenth century, Russian elites understood civic engagement as service in military and administrative bodies, including elective bodies and offices, which nevertheless were created, defined and regulated by state prescription. Nor did the ownership of serfs and landed property carry legal-administrative authority beyond the family estate. When enlightened officials and educated Russians of the late eighteenth century called for civic engagement and worked to build civic institutions, they continued to equate social progress with personal moral reformation. Their calls for justice implied not open-ended social and political transformation but the restoration of God-given natural order. Only in the nineteenth century would their moral consciousness become a form of social identity to be affirmed by political means.
In Russia, the evolution from late-eighteenth-century 'civic society' to late- nineteenth-century 'civil society' can be traced through the provincial noble assemblies established in the reign of Catherine the Great. Although historians have devoted scant attention to these assemblies, there is no evidence to suggest that they played, or even aspired to play, a significant political role before the 1850s. On the contrary, the noble assemblies extended state administration into rural localities and provided a channel of communication between local nobles and the monarch in St Petersburg.31 Governors appointed by the sovereign supervised the assemblies, and the cultural, educational and philanthropic activities they sponsored tended to result from official mandates. In general, judging from fragmentary and passing references, the assemblies served the social needs of local nobles by addressing genealogical, inheritance and welfare claims. Such a narrow particularistic orientation can hardly be equated with contested politics within an institutionalised public sphere.
But conditions changed in the era of the Great Reforms. Local nobles organised in provincial assemblies began to play a translocal political role not, as in the past, by serving in the army and bureaucracy, but by representing the interests of noble society in relation to the state and other social groups.32 The turning point came in 1858, when at the behest of the central government, provincial committees met to draw up projects for the impending emancipation of the serfs.[38] The projects were locally conceived and generally non- political; however, the landed nobility appeared almost universally united in refusing to endorse the government's vision of the emancipation settlement. Not surprisingly, officials in St Petersburg roundly rejected the noble projects, a move that led some provincial assemblies to call for open debate and societal representation in an on-going process of reform. The government had consulted with noble representatives on a matter of national importance but then completely ignored their views and silenced their voices, opting instead for emancipation by bureaucratic fiat.[39] Relations between the landed nobility and the monarchy would be changed forever. From this point onward, noble landowners would comprise a distinct social and political interest. Russia's pre-political literary public sphere, grounded in print culture and sociability, had evolved into a politically organised public sphere, grounded in legally and historically constituted institutions. The articulation of noble interests in opposition to official policy heralded the birth of Russian civil society independent of the state.
Of course, most Russian nobles remained loyal subjects of the monarchy. Still, the political and social agitation surrounding the peasant emancipation represented an early, if narrow, assertion of politically organised civil society. A more permanent locus of political action, one rooted in an institution of self-government rather than a particular policy decision, arose with the establishment of zemstvo (local elected council) assemblies in 1864.[40] Following the peasant emancipation, locally elected, multiclass zemstvos helped to fill the vacuum created by the removal of seignorial authority. The zemstvos enjoyed limited powers of taxation, which they used to finance meaningful social services, though always with the permission of the provincial governor or officials in St Petersburg. Local nobles dominated the ranks of private landowners and thus controlled the zemstvos; however, representatives of the peasant and urban classes also sat in the assemblies. Equally important for the development of a broad-based political society in Russia, zemstvo responsibility for infrastructure, education, public health and social welfare increasingly tied local self-government to the national political arena. Although Russia had no elected legislative body before 1906, zemstvo functions drew significant numbers of Russians into direct involvement with issues of empire-wide importance. This political experience, framed by an institution designed to meet the needs of diverse localities and social groups, provided a solid foundation for the emergence of modern civil society.
35
For an overview, see M. Riedel, 'Gesellschaft, btirgerliche', in O. Brunner, W Conze and R. Koselleck (eds.),
36
With reference to the eighteenth century 'absolutism' means not the 'absolute' power of a centralised state but a set of political institutions and relationships presided over by a monarch whose authority was assumed to be God-given and hence absolute. As the elected of God, the monarch presided over the implementation of God's laws in order to protect the people over whom he or she exercised sovereignty Failure to live up to this obligation violated God's trust and already in the Middle Ages could be grounds for removal of the monarch. On these issues, see James Collins,
37
On the 'public sphere', see J. Habermas,
How the noble assemblies used this channel of communication is a fascinating topic in need of study
38
T. Emmons,
39
For the bureaucratic side of the story, see D. Field,
40
On the zemstvos, see T. Emmons and W S. Vucinich (eds.),