This book, by the author of Nietzsche in Turin, offers a unique interpretation of Russian history and thought. Lesley Chamberlain, novelist, traveller and historian of ideas, has been pondering the enigma of Russia for over thirty years. She finds that during the last two centuries Russian intellectuals have asked two fundamental questions: 'what makes a good man?' and 'what is the right way to live?'

In their attempts to answer these questions, Chamberlain shows how these thinkers neglected the role of the individual, prioritizing instead the need to end injustice and autocracy. It was not until the eve of the revolution of 1917 that Russian philosophers came to grips with individualism, only for this endeavour to be fragmented and forced underground by the totalitarian century that followed. The end of Communism and the rediscovery of that semi-concealed world have allowed us to see a continuous Russian philosophical tradition far removed from the crude version of Western reason introduced by Lenin. The deeper Russian tradition with its affinities to poetry and theology emerges in radical ideas about ethics and knowledge.

Motherland is an introduction to the key Russian thinkers and a journey in the history of ideas from a highly original writer. By examining Russian thought over the past two centuries, Lesley Chamberlain has produced a radical new interpretation of Russian intellectual history.