Drawing from a range of critical perspectives in particular postcolonial this book examines the relationship between perceptions of Russia and of Eastern Europe and the making of a Western identity. It explores the ways in which the perception of certain characteristics of Russia and Eastern Europe whether real or attributed was shaped by and used for the construction of a liberal narrative of the West which eventually became dominant. The focus of this inquiry is French culture from the beginning of the debate about Russia among the philosophes c.1740 to the consolidation of a professional field of Slavic studies c.1880. A wide range of writing literature travel accounts histories political tracts scientific journals and parliamentary debates is examined through the work of major authors from Montesquieu Diderot and Rousseau to Tocqueville de Maistre and Guizot from Mme. de Stal Hugo and Balzac to Dumas Michelet and Comte as well as that of many less well known figures. The book also explores possible continuities between those first academic accounts of Russia and Eastern Europe and presentday scholarship in Europe and the USA to show that the liberal ideological accounts constructed in the nineteenth century still to a great extent inform contemporary academic studies.