THOMAS MORE'S UTOPIA IN RUSSIA

The name of Thomas More has been known in Russia for a long time. Russian editions of 'Utopia' date back to the XVIIIth century1, though its first translations from the Latin original were published only at the beginning of the XXth century2. Nevertheless this fact did not prevent Russian scholars of social and political thought from studying 'Utopia' in the original. Thus B.N. Chicherin, professor of law, in his course of lectures at Moscow University in the sixties of the XIXth century, stressed the fact that 'Utopia' played an important role in the history of political doctrines of a new period3.

Analysing 'Utopia', Chicherin considered More as a son of a new age, whose criticism directed against the existing social structure reminded him of that of 'modem socialists'. Sharply attacking 'Utopia' from the point of view of a bourgeois-liberal historiography, Chicherin tried to prove that it was wrong to demand the abolition of private property for it was property and not communism that was necessary and just4.

In Chichcrin's opinion the remedy proposed by the dreamer More for curing social evils contradicted both man's nature and industrial laws as well as high principles of community. 'Utopia' describes an ideal mode of life which has never been and can never be. Chicherin contrasted the pure idealist More with the more practical Machiavelli5.

The well-known Russian historian R.Y. Vipper who in 1896 published his brilliant essay about More helped to popularize 'Utopia' in Russia6. Disagreeing with his English contemporary T.E. Bridgett who considered 'Utopia' a "jeu d'esprit", Vipper saw in it an important 'fact of social life and social consciousness' of the Renaissance. He thought that the character of Hythloday was used to express the personal, intimate ideas oí More himself7. In Vipper's opinion 'Utopia' was a production of an earnest 'social reformer', 'the expression of the best ideas of the age\ he wrote8. He stressed More's progressive views on religion, regarding him as a predecessor of the Enlightenment thinkers9. Vipper saw the origin of More's socialist ideals in 'the medieval Catholicism' and in 'the life of a medieval town'10.

The most prominent work about Thomas More published in Russia was a Master's thesis by E.V. Tarie11.

Pointing out that those who regarded 'Utopia' as a "jeu...