About the book: 2021 / Nathan Yakovlevich Eidelman (1930–1989) — a leading researcher of Russian history and culture, beloved by many generations of readers for his invaluable contribution to the study and popularization of the history of the 18th–19th centuries. This book includes the author’s works devoted to both the evolution of the views of his main characters - Pushkin, Karamzin, Herzen, and the formation of their worldviews antagonists. One of the most fascinating stories in the book is the story of a renegade - the “liberal screamer” Leonty Dubelt, who was initially close to the Decembrists, and then became one of the most zealous guardians of the Nicholas regime. The book ends with a prophetic analysis of the history of Russian reforms, starting from the era of Peter I and ending perestroika. “Revolution from Above in Russia,” written in 1989, became the political and historiosophical testament of Eidelman, who, foreseeing his imminent departure, was in a hurry to convey both his hopes and his fears about his future to a society on the verge of new radical changes.