The Russian nihilist movement was a philosophical, cultural, and revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ; it was the precursor to broader forms of the philosophy of . In Russian, the word (; meaning 'nihilism', ) came to represent the movement's of pre-existing ideals. Even as it was yet unnamed, the movement arose from a generation of young radicals disillusioned with the social reformers of the past, and from a growing divide between the intelligentsia of the genteel and non-genteel social classes. Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin, as stated in the Encyclopædia Britannica, "defined nihilism as the symbol of struggle against all forms of tyranny, hypocrisy, and artificiality and for individual freedom." Though philosophically both nihilistic and skeptical, Russian nihilism was not a unilateral negation of ethicsand knowledgeas may be falsely assumed, nor did it necessarily espouse meaninglessness . It did , however, incorporate theories of hard determinism, atheism, materialism, positivism, and rational egoism . As such, it aimed to assimilate and distinctively recontextualize core elements of European Enlightenment thought into Russia while rejecting the Westernizers of the previous generation. Nihilists inevitably fell into conflict with religious authorities from the Orthodox Church, as well as with prevailing rigid family structures and the Tsarist autocracy.
The Russian nihilist movement was a philosophical, cultural, and revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire during the late 19th and early 20th centuries , which was the precursor to broader forms of the philosophy of . In Russian, the word (; meaning 'nihilism', ) came to represent the movement's of pre-existing ideals. Even as it was yet unnamed, the movement arose from a generation of young radicals disillusioned with the social reformers of the past, and from a growing divide between the intelligentsia of the genteel and non-genteel social classes. Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin, as stated in the Encyclopædia Britannica, "defined nihilism as the symbol of struggle against all forms of tyranny, hypocrisy, and artificiality and for individual freedom." Though philosophically both nihilistic and skeptical, Russian nihilism did not target all ethics, knowledge, and human life as meaningless, but instead focused on what it saw as meaningless in the dominant hegemony of religion, morality, philosophy, aesthetics, and social institutions . It did however, incorporate theories of hard determinism, atheism, materialism, positivism, and rational egoism , in an aim to assimilate and distinctively recontextualize core elements of European Enlightenment thought into Russia while rejecting the Westernizers of the previous generation. Nihilists inevitably fell into conflict with religious authorities from the Orthodox Church, as well as with prevailing rigid family structures and the Tsarist autocracy.
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