SLAVOPHILE

A 'Slavophile' was a member of an intellectual movement from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its the early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to Western European culture and its influences in Russia Encyclopaedia Britannica Slavophile article.
As an intellectual movement, Slavophilism was developed in the 19th-century Russia. In a sense there was not one but many slavophile movements, or many branches of the same movement. Some were to the left of the political spectrum, noting that progressive ideas such as democracy were intrinsic to the Russian experience, as proved by what they considered to be the rough democracy of medieval Novgorod. Some were to the right of the spectrum and pointed to the centuries old tradition of the autocratic Tsar as being the essence of the Russian nature. The Slavophiles were determined to protect what they believed were unique Russian traditions and culture. In doing so they rejected individualism. The role of the Orthodox Church was seen by them as more significant then the role of the state. Socialism was opposed by Slavophiles as an alien thought, and Russian mysticism was preferred over Western rationalism. Rural life was praised by the movement, opposing industralisation as well as urban development, while protection of the "mir" (rural society) was seen as important measure to prevent growth of the proletariat
From Nyet to Da: understanding the Russians, page 65 by Yale Richmond, Intercultural Press; 3rd edition (January 2003).
The movement originated in Moscow in the 1830s. Drawing on the works of Greek patristics, the poet Aleksey Khomyakov (1804-60) and his devoutly Orthodox colleagues elaborated a traditionalistic doctrine that claimed Russia has its own distinct way, which doesn't have to imitate and mimic Western institutions. The Russian Slavophiles denounced Western culture and "westernizations" by Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, and some of them even adopted traditional pre-Petrine dress.
The doctrines of Khomyakov, Ivan Kireevsky (1806-56), Konstantin Aksakov (1817-60) and other Slavophiles had a deep impact on Russian culture, including the Russian Revival school of architecture, The Five of Russian composers, the novelist Nikolai Gogol, the poet Fyodor Tyutchev, the lexicographer Vladimir Dahl, and others. Their struggle for purity of the Russian language had something in common with aesthetic views of Leo Tolstoy.
In the sphere of practical politics, the Slavophilism manifested itself as a pan-Slavic movement for the unification of all Slavic people under leadership of the Russian tsar and for the liberation of the Balkan Slavs from the Ottoman yoke. The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78 is usually considered a high point of this militant Slavophilism, as expounded by the charismatic commander Mikhail Skobelev.
The attitude towards other nations with Slavic origins varied, depending on the group involved. Classical Slavophiles believed that "Slavdom", that is the alleged by Slavophile movement common identity to all people of Slavic origin, was based on Orthodox religion"Classical Russian Slavophiles often conflated language and religion, equating Slavdom with Orthodoxy"
The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography page 230 by Martin W. Lewis, Kären E. Wigen, University of California Press; 1 edition (August 11, 1997).
Russian Empire besides containing Russians, ruled over contained milions of Ukrainians, Poles and Belarussians, that had their own national identites, traditions and religions. Towards Ukrainians and Belarussians, the Slavophiles developed the view that they are part of the same "Great Russian" nation, Belarussians being the "White Russians" Ukrainians "Little Russians". Slavophile thinkers such as Mikhail Katkov believed that both nations should be ruled under Russian leadership and are essential part of Russian stateThe Image of Ukraine and the Ukrainians in Russian Political Thought (1860-1945) by Volodymyr A. Potulnytskyi, ACTA SLAVICA IAPONICA,Volume 16 (1998) Journal of Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University. At the same time they denied the separate cultural identity of Ukrainian and Belarussian people, believing their national as well as language and literary aspirations are result of "Polish intrigue" that aims at separating them from Russians.
Toward a United States of Russia: Plans and Projects of Federal Reconstruction of Russia in the Nineteenth Century page 137
by Dimitri Von Mohrenschildt, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press 1981. Other Slavophiles like Ivan Aksakov recognized the right of Ukrainians to use Ukrainian language, however seeing it as completely unnecessary and harmful.Sovremennaia Letopis', No. XVII, 1861, pp. 124-125. "I do not believe in a possibility of creating a Malorussian common literary language, except for purely popular works of art, and I do not see any possibility of that, and I do not want and I cannot want any artificial attempts to destroy the wholeness of common Russian development, the attempts to lead the Malorussian artists away from writing in the Russian language. Thank God, that Gogol' had lived and worked before these demands appeared: we would have no "Mertvye Dushi"; you, or Kulish, would have fettered him with a tribal egoism and would have narrowed his horizon with the outlook of a single tribe! But, of course, no one of us has ever wanted or intended to stand in your way. Write as much as you please, translate Shakespeare and Schiller into the Malorussian dialect, dress Homer's characters and Greek gods in a Malorussian free-and-easy sheepskin coat (kozhukh)!"
Aksakov however did see some use of "Malorussian" language as practical, it would be beneficial in struggle against "Polish civilizational element in the western provinces"
Besides Ukrainians and Belarussians, Russian Empire also included Poles, whose country was gone after being partitioned by three neighbouring states, including Russia, which after decisions of Congress of Vienna expanded into more Polish inhabited territories. Poles proved to be a problem for the ideology of Slavophilism Reassessment of the Relationship: Polish History and the Polish Question in the Imperial Duma Journal article by Dmitry Shlapentokh; East European Quarterly, Vol. 33, 1999
The very name Slavophiles indicated that the characteristics of the Slavs were based rom their ethnicity, but at the same time Slavophiles believed that Orthodoxy equaled Slavdom. This belief was opposed by very existence of Poles within Russian Empire, who while having Slavic origins were also deeply Roman Catholic, the catholic faith forming one of core values of Polish national identity Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics Page 51 by Pedro Ramet, Duke University Press 1989.
Also while Slavophiles praised leadership of Russia over other nations of Slavic origins, the Poles very identity was based on West European culture and values and resistance to Russia was seen by them as resistance to something representing alien way of life
U.S. Library of Congress, Country Study Poland. As a result Slavophiles were particularly hostile to Polish nation often emotionally attacking it in their writings Reassessment of the Relationship: Polish History and the Polish Question in the Imperial Duma Journal article by Dmitry Shlapentokh; East European Quarterly, Vol. 33, 1999
When the Polish uprising of 1861 started , Slavophiles used anti-Polish sentiment to create feelings of national unity in Russian people..rather than emphasizing the cultural union of all Slavs (as the Slavophiles did until the idea fell apart amid the Polish uprisings of the 1860s) Dreams of the Eurasian Heartland: The Reemergence of Geopolitics Charles Clover March/April 1999. With that Poland became firmly established to Slavophiles as symbol of Catholicism and Western Europe, that they detested
The Polish nation from this time forward was to Slavophiles the embodiment of the detested Western Europe and of the detested Catholicism."
Impressions of Russia by Georg Morris Cohen Brandes, T. Y. Crowell & co 1889, and as Poles were never assimiliated within the Russian Empire, constantly resisting Russian occupation of their country, in the end Slavophiles came to belief that annexation of Poland was a mistake due to fact that Polish nation couldn't be russified.The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization by Dmitri Trenin,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
"After the struggle with Poles, Slavophiles expressed their belief, that notwithstanding the goal of conquering Constantinopol, the future conflict would be made between "Teutonic race"(Germans), and "Slavs", and the movement turned into Germanophobia Russian Imperialism: Development and Crisis page 54,
"Thus Slavophilia transformed itself into Germanophobia."page 55 by Ariel Cohen, Praeger Publishers 1996
It should be noted that most Slavophiles were liberals and ardently supported the emancipation of serfs, which was finally realised in emancipation reform of 1861. Press censorship, serfdom, and capital punishment were viewed as baneful Western influences. Their political ideal was a parliamentary monarchy, as represented by the medieval Zemsky Sobors.
After the serfdom was abolished in Russia and the end of uprising in Poland, Slavophilism began to degenerate and turned into narrow-minded Russian aggressive nationalism. New Slavophile thinkers appeared in 1870s and 1880s represented by scholars like N.Danilevsky and K. Leontiev. Danilevsky promoted autocracy and imperialistic expansion as part of Russian national interest. Leontiev believed in a police state ideology aimed at preventing European influences to reach Russia. The second generation of Slavophilism appeared in the 1870s and 1880s in the shape of N.Danilevsky and K. Leontiev. The former equated Russia's national interests with autocracy and expansionistic imperialism. K. Leontiev-the leading ideologist in the 1880s-launched some kind of police state ideology in order to save Russia from European influences."
The Extreme Nationalist Threat in Russia: The Growing Influence of Western Rightist Ideas page 211 by Thomas Parland Routledge 2005
Later writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Konstantin Leontyev, and Nikolay Danilevsky developed a peculiar conservative and anti-Semitic version of Slavophilism called ''pochvennichestvo'' (from the Russian word for soil). This teaching, as articulated by Konstantin Pobedonostsev (secular head of the Russian Orthodox church), was adopted as the official imperial ideology in the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II. Even after the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was further developed by the émigré religious philosophers like Ivan Ilyin (1883-1954).
Many of the Slavophiles influenced prominent Cold War thinkers such as George F. Kennan{{fact}, instilling in them a love for "Old" Russia as opposed to Soviet Russia. This in turn influenced their foreign policy ideas, such as Kennan's belief that the revival of the Eastern Orthodox Church in WWII would lead to the reform or overthrow of the Soviet Union.

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References

External links

See also

★ List of Slavophiles

★ Pan-Slavism

★ Russification

References

External links

★ An Interpretation of Slavophilism