The purpose of the article is to give an idea of the background of the creation of the Christian Historical Union (CHU), one of the leading Dutch political parties of the 20th century. Its origins date back to the last third of the 19th century, when confessional parties began to emerge in the Netherlands, the first of which, in 1879, was the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP). The party’s core consisted of adherents of orthodox Protestantism who had separated from the official Dutch Reformed Church and advocated for the independence of church and state. The most important political goal of the anti-revolutionaries, led by the Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper, was to create an alliance between Catholics and Protestants to counter the liberals. However, the ARP, which was rapidly gaining political momentum and playing a key role in the States General, underwent a split. In 1894, a conservative group, led by A.F. de Savornin Loman, withdrew from the party. The article focuses on the personality of this politician, his relationship with Kuyper and his contribution to the development of the Dutch political system. For the first time in Russian historiography, the text of the program of the basic principles of the new party, which was written by De Savornin Lohman in March 1898, translated from French by the author of the article, is published. The De Savornin Lohman’s group, which did not recognize the strict party discipline of the ARP, denied alliance with Catholics and opposed the law on universal suffrage, formed an independent party in September 1898, called the Free Anti-Revolutionary Party. Following a series of mergers between the Free Anti-Revolutionary Party and Christian-Historical political unions, the Christian Historical Union was formed in July 1908. Until its dissolution in 1980, it was the second-largest Protestant party in the Netherlands.
Key words: Groen van Prinsterer, Abraham Kuyper, Anti-Revolutionary Party, A.F. de Savornin Lohman, The Free Anti-Revolutionary Party, Christian Historical Union