Tibor Szamuely

The Russian Tradition

by Tibor Szamuely

He was a Hungarian naturalised British historian in the late 70s when I was at university. His view of history was quite fashionable at that time and it has stayed with me. Specifically, his view of Russian history. It’s a rather conservative, right-wing view that says Russia can never be a Western-style democracy or market economy in the way that we know it because of her imbibed tradition of non-freedom and non-democracy.

Read expert recommendations