The article examines the key moments of the transformation of the liberal tradition in Russia in the modern era. The first part is devoted to the analysis of the main directions of the transformation of liberal ideological discourse and liberal culture in Western Europe and the United States. The need for such an analysis is determined, primarily, by the fact that since the early 1990s the Western liberal stereotypes became ideological basis of the new Russian political elite and the dominant trend of state propaganda. However the main fact is often overlooked: in the XX century Russian liberalism has twice been compromised so that in the short-term the hopes for the revival of the liberal ideas are left. The crisis of the liberal tradition delineated also the West. Liberalism is undergoing there very significant transformation, with far-reaching cultural and political implications. In particular, at the end of XX - beginning of XXI cc. more active role in Western public discourse began to play the radical n