Starting in the mid-19th century, the Russian authorities promoted rapid economic modernisation while trying to maintain the traditional social order and political absolutism. State-led industrialisation, however, created new social groups, such as urban workers; enlarged the intelligentsia; and facilitated contact between villages and urban centres. These changes also increased the burden of t...

As is widely known, the onset of the First World War in 1914 produced a wide range of reactions from the intelligentsia of the countries at war, not only in Germany, but also, particularly, in France and England as well. Nevertheless, in Germany it was especially the philosophers who felt called upon to explain the meaning of the war in their own domain, i.e., philosophically. In this paper I w...