The essays suggested that Russia had reached a milestone and was ready for turning. Five of the contributors had earlier abandoned Marxism under the influence of neo-Kantian concerns, over personal freedom and morality. They had participated in the establishment of a liberal political party but now recoiled at the Cadet Party's recklessness and ineffectiveness in parliamentary politics. A modernist document, "Vekhi" called for a rethinking of the Enlightenment project of acculturation and proposed exploration of the depths of the self as an alternative to populist and nihilist programs.