sparsely cultivated) field to cast serious doubt on the central theses of
these essays. I may, however, be mistaken about this; if so, I should
like to assure the reader that this is due to ignorance on my pan rather
than unshakeable confidence in the validity of my own opinions.
VII
RUSSIAN THINKERS
Indeed, the entire burden of these collected essays, so far as they can
be said to display any single tendency, is distrust of all claims to the
possession of incorrigible knowledge about issues of fact or principle
in any sphere of human behaviour.
ISAIAH BERLIN
July I977
viii
Editorial Preface
This is one of five volumes in which I have brought together, and
prepared for reissue, most of the published essays by Isaiah Berlin
which had not hitherto been made available in a collected form.1 His
many writings were scattered, often in obscure places, most were out
of print, and only half a dozen essays had previously been collected
and reissued.2 These five volumes, together with the list of his
publications which one of them (Against the Current) contains, 3 and a
new volume on j. G. Hamann, 4 have made much more of his work
readily accessible than before.
The present volume comprises ten essays on nineteenth-century
Russian literature and thought. The details of their original publication are as follows. 'Russia and I 848' appeared in the Slavonic Review 26 (I948); The Hedgehog and the Fox' first appeared, in a shorter
form, as 'Lev Tolstoy's Historical Scepticism' in Oxford Slavonic
Papers 2 (I95I), and was reprinted with additions under its present
title in I953 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in London, and by Simon
and Schuster in New York; 'Herzen and Bakunin on Individual
Liberty' was published in Ernest j. Simmons (ed.), Continuity and
Change in Russian and Soviet Thought (Cambridge, Massachusetts,
I 9 55: Harvard University Press); the four esays collectively entitled
I This volume was first published in London and New York in 1978. The
other volumes are Concepts and Categories: Philosophical Essays (London, 197 8;
New York, 1979), Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (London,
1979; New York, 1980), Persona/Impressions (London, 1980; New York,
198 1) and The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas
(London, 1990; New York, 1991).
z Four Essays on Liberty (London, 1969; New York, 1970) and Vico atld
Herder: Two Studies in the History of Ideas (London and New York, 1976).
Other collections have appeared only in translation.
3 Its currently most up-to-date version appears in the 1991 impression of
the Oxford University Press paperback edition.
4 The Magus of the North: J. G. Hamann and the Origins of Modern Irrationalism, edited by Henry Hardy (London, 1993; New York, 1994).
R USS IA N T H I NKERS
'A Remarkable Decade', reprinted here from the version published
as 'A Marvellous Decade' in Encounter 4 No 6 (June I955), 5 No I 1
(November 1955), 5 No 12 (December 1955) and 6 No 5 (May 1956),
originated as the Northcliffe Lectures for 19 54 (delivered at U niversity College, London), which were also broadcast later that year on the Third Programme of the BBC; 'Russian Populism' is the
introduction to Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution (London, 1960:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson; New York, 1960: Knopf), and also
appeared in Encounter 15 No 1 (July 1960); 'Tolstoy and Enlightenment', the P.E.N. Hermon Ould Memorial Lecture for I960, was published first in Encounter I 6 No 2 (February 1961 ), and subsequently in Mightier Than The Sword (London, 1964: Macmillan);
'Fathers and Children', the Romanes Lecture for I 970, was published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1972 (reprinted with corrections, 1973), and has also appeared in the New York Review of
Books ( 1 B October, 1 and 15 November, 1973) and as the introduction to Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, translated by Rosemary Edmonds (Harmondsworth, 197 5: Penguin). I am grateful to the
publishers concerned for allowing me to reprint these essays.
'A Remarkable Decade', 'Russian Populism' and 'Tolstoy and
Enlightenment' have been left without references, as they originally
appeared. A few passages- chiefly translations- were rewritten by
the author for this volume. Otherwise, apart from necessary corrections, and the addition of missing references, the essays are reprinted essentially in their original form.
Those who know the author's work in this field will notice that two
important items are missing. The first is the introduction to an
English translation of Alexander Herzen's From the Other Shore and
The Russian People and Socialism (London, 1956; revised edition,
Oxford, 1979); the second is the introduction to Constance Garnett's
translation of Herzen's memoirs, My Past and Thoughts (London and
New York, 1968). Both of these pieces overlap to some extent with
the two essays on Herzen in this volume. The first does not appear in
any of the five volumes; the second is included in Against the Current,
where it is equally at home.1
1 Readers may like to have a list of other pieces in this area which do not
appear here. There are three radio talks: 'The Man Who Became a Myth'
(Belinsky), Listener 38 (1947); 'The Father of Russian Marxism'
X
EDI T ORIAL PREFACE
I have many debts of gratitude, and can mention only the weightiest here. First and foremost, the great bulk of the detailed editorial work on this volume was undertaken by Dr Aileen Kelly, without
whose specialist knowledge of the Russian language and of
nineteenth-century Russian culture my task would have been impossible. During an unusually busy time she devoted many hours to the search for answers to my queries, and my obligation and gratitude to her are very great. Isaiah Berlin himself was unfailingly courteous, good-humoured and informative in response both to my
persistent general advocacy of the whole project, which he regarded
throughout with considerable, and mounting, scepticism, and to my
often over-meticulous probings into points of detail. Lesley
Chamberlain gave valuable help with 'Herzen and Bakunin on
Individual Liberty'. Pat Utechin, Isaiah Berlin's secretary, was an
indispensable source of help and encouragement at all stages.
HENRY HARDY
February 1994
P OSTSCRIPT 1997
Since the above Preface was written I have edited two further volumes
of essays by Isaiah Berlin: The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas
and their History (London, 1996; New York, 1997), which mainly
comprises previously unpublished work; and The Proper Study of
Mankind: An Anthology of Essays, co-edited with Roger Hausheer
(London, 1997), a selection drawn from previous volumes which aims
to represent the best of Berlin's work, across its whole range.
H.H.
(Piekhanov), Listmer 56 ( 1956); and ' The Role of the Intelligentsia', Listmer
79 ( 1968). There are three contributions to Foreign Affairs on modern Russia,
which, though they do not strictly belong in this company, have many points