"In any circumstances Andrzej Walicki's book would be interesting and very useful, for it covers virtually all the significant Russian thinkers from the age of Catherine the Great down to the eve of the 1905 Revolution. What makes it of particular interest is the fact that it comes from an Eastern European country yet presents a picture of Russian philosophical developments that shows wide and open sympathies of a kind hard to imagine finding expression within Russia itself... A fascinating presentation of the intellectual ambience of Russia in the era before the revolutionary twentieth century... A full and satisfying survey, well populated with personalities, events, and ideas... A History of Russian thought is a fine and courageous work... The effects of the book, which is as informative as it is provocative of thought, is enhanced by the fluency of the English translation by Hilda Andrews-Rusiecka."
George Woodcock ,The New Leader "Walicki succeeds admirably in his task... He has written a comprehensive, erudite study which should serve well both students and specialists in Russian studies."
Mark G. Pomar ,Slavic and East European Journal "The value of Walicki's book resides ... in his ability to see the development of individual thinkers against a complex background and to relate them to earlier and later aspects of the movement... It is good to have Walicki's scholarship ably summed up in a convenient text."
Philip Pomper ,Russian History