Narodnost and the state in the Slavophile doctrine (1840s-1880s)

The national discourse in the 19th-century Russian intellectual tradition initially focused on defining the principles of interaction between the nation and the state. The purpose of this article is to identify the Slavophiles' attitude to ethnic phenomena and the state, both in the historical perspective and in the perspective of the contemporary Russian society. The author believes that in historical literature there is no single point of view on the periodization of Slavophilism. But most researchers agree that the development of the main provisions of the Slavophile doctrine originated in the works of A. Khomyakov, I.V. Kireevsky, K.S. Aksakov and others the 1840s-1850s. I.S. Aksakov was the successor of the classical Slavophile tradition and, in one version, was its last representative, in another, he was the link with the late Slavophilism. Therefore, the chronological scope of this article is limited to the period of active academic and journalistic activities of those personalities, i.e. the 1840s-1880s. The author analyzes the Slavophile tradition of ethnic relations and the state. Initially it was treated only as an interaction of Russian nationality and Russian state, in terms of prioritizing the consolidating factor in Russian history. But in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional community, relations of the Russian people with other peoples of the Russian Empire were inevitably actualized. As a result, this problem acquired a multi-vector character and inevitably transformed Slavophiles in the question of the relationship between the Russian state and the non-Russian nationalities. Slavophilism appealed to the nation as the main subject of historical activity. Slavophiles, declaring the idea of the Russian national state, defined the Russian people as the main driving force of this process. Russia was to be a Russian state, which, in the Slavophiles' option, assumed assimilation of other peoples that were part of the state. Slavophiles saw a manifestation of the national forces of the Russian people in Russification. To realize this potential, the people had to be freed from the care of the state to conduct socio-economic reforms, to develop self-government. Only when the Russian people became true leaders in culture, morality, spirituality, natural Russification could occur as a long evolutionary process of voluntary assimilation, i.e. familiarizing foreigners with Russian culture and spirituality. This does not mean a complete refusal to rely on state power, but the success of the "Russian matter" should come only when the Russian people will be an independent developing subject. The author concludes that the nation for Slavophiles was the main force of social development, and the state was its tool. Therefore, the Slavophiles, the author believes, can be attributed to the ethnocentric wing of Russian nationalism of the 19th century.

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