Disputes About the Politics of England and France on the Pages of Russian Magazines of 1860-1862 and the Position of the Dostoevsky Brothers' Magazine Vremya

The aim of this study is to reconstruct the image of England, to determine its functions in the magazine Vremya in 1860 to 1862, and to identify how the image of England changed compared with the one that had already been established in the above-mentioned magazines. England played a major role in the events that took place in Europe in the 1860s. This attracted the attention of Russian periodicals (Russkiy vestnik, Sovremennik, Otechestvennyie zapiski). Numerous publications about England together with the aggravated political situation in Russia made England a cult for the Russian intellectuals. A certain image of the country was formed. Dos-toevsky, being a supporter of Pochvenichestvo (a movement closely tied with the ideology of the Slavophiles), saw danger in this trend. While approving of the reformation of the old way of life, Dostoevsky believed that Russia should work out a separate development path, different from the European one. At the time, England was making a great success in the foreign policy. A number of the largest Russian magazines indicated the need for reforms in Russia according to the English model. Dostoevsky considered this idea disastrous for the country. According to the controversy arising in this context, the image of England on the pages of Vremya performs certain functions and acquires a philosophical interpretation. In the early 1860s, England became the spotlight of Russian journalists due to the liberation movement in Italy and the issue of colonization. The current study is based on the articles connected with these topics. In the study, a comparative method is used to identify common and distinctive features of the image of England in magazines. The analysis of Russkiy vestnik, Sovremennik, Otechestvennyie zapiski showed the following features of the image. (1) In 1860-61, the major liberal magazines of the 19th century present England as a powerful, developed state, which considers it necessary to impose its values on other countries by force. (2) England is a country with a humanist ideology. It is ready to fight for its principles, but its humanism can be called rational: it puts its own interests above all and shows humanity if it sees benefit in it. (3) This image of England is built on a comparison with France, which is endowed with opposite characteristics. In the Vremya magazine, these characteristics are reinterpreted. The reconstruction of the image of England in the magazine and its comparison with the image in other magazines gave the following results. (1) England and France are equalled to Europe, thereby losing their national traits (the England-France opposition is destroyed). (2) England is not really a humane country since humanity cannot be dictated by the passion for profit. (3) European humanism, including the English one, is considered as a threat to the moral state of society and to every single person.

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