The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard. Short summary

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A play-trilogy. Russian enlighteners—Bakunin, Herzen, Turgenev, and others—hope for the achievements of the French Revolution of 1848, experience disappointment, and meet in London, discussing freedom.

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Trilogy. Part 1, The Journey. Friends Turgenev, Belinsky, and Stankevich meet at the Bakunin family estate. The young men are fascinated by the ideas of Hegel, Kant and other German philosophers. They argue about the development of society and individual freedom.

Part 2 «Shipwreck». The French Revolution of 1848 was defeated. Mikhail Bakunin has become an anarchist, Belinsky is ill with consumption. Friends (Herzen and Nikolai Ogarev are added to them) are disappointed that anything can change for the better in Russia.

Part 3, «Salvation.» Friends meet in London. Bakunin arrives there from exile. Herzen’s wife Natalia is indifferent to Ogarev. The friends talk about freedom after the collapse of the European revolutions.

They believe that building a just society is utopia. But it is possible to build Utopia in the family — «a small personal empire.