It was a great and salutary force...": on the history of relations of A. A. Kireev and M. N. Katkov

In the paper, the history of the relations of A.A. Kireev, one of the most authoritative representatives of late Slavophilism, with M.N. Katkov, a recognized leader of conservative ideology of the last third of the 19th century, a publicist, the editor of the largest conservative newspaper Moskovskiye Vedomosti, is analyzed. The reasons which pulled the two authoritative thinkers together are established, the common positions on a number of social and political questions are considered. Kireev's diaries of 1862--1887, diaries of the writer N.P. Shalikova, Kireev's letters addressed to Katkov, some other documents stored in the archives of the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library have formed the basis for the paper. Despite a considerable difference in education, upbringing, social status, sociopolitical and philosophical views, Kireev and Katkov had trusting friendly relations for more than twenty years. They met in the fall of 1864 thanks to O.A. Novikova, Kireev's younger sister, an employee of Moskovskiye Vedomosti, and developed firm friendship based on sincere interest in the events which took place in Russia and beyond, on their aspiration to see national priorities at the heart of Russian policy, on their broad outlooks, enthusiasm for literature and sciences, hostility to Saint Petersburg with its bureaucracy and the state atmosphere, and, of course, their love to Moscow which for each of them was the embodiment of the Russian character, the traditional national way, the keeper of the time-tested values and traditions. Katkov was one of the most respected and appreciated representatives of Russian public opinion for Kireev. The position of the newspaper Katkov edited on many fundamental issues was close to Kireev and had his unambiguous support, e.g., Kireev fully shared the sharp criticism of nihilistic and socialist theories in Moskovskiye Vedomosti, of the campaign the newspaper started against jury trials; he passionately approved of the newspaper course towards protection of the Slavic matter and Orthodoxy in the Balkans, etc. In the paper, it is noted that Kireev, who in 1862--1892 was an aide-de-camp of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and therefore was one of the most informed persons of the Russian Empire, it was useful for Katkov as a source of urgent and reliable information about the events in the top government of Saint Petersburg and Warsaw. Special attention is paid to the intermediary role of Kireev in the settlement of the conflict between Katkov and the grand duke at the end of the 1860s and in the organization of their meeting in the Marble Palace during which Katkov managed to convince the prince to support his project of a gymnasium reform. In the 1880s, Kireev believed that for the benefit of the common cause it is necessary to seek for association of conservative forces rather than for aggravation of disagreements. In his diaries and in his article "Katkov and Aksakov" he insistently emphasized that Slavophilism and Conservatism served the same purposes and professed the same values, only differing in methods for their achievement. The over twenty years of Kireev's cooperation with Katkov confirm the influence of Conservatism ideology on the sociopolitical concept of late Slavophilism in the person of one of its most authoritative representatives.

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