Formation of national discourse in Slavophil tradition

Basing their views on idealist philosophy, the Slavophils came from the absolutedomination of the spiritual sphere of human life and society. The development of people seemed to them as a process of spiritual andintellectual search implemented in art, religion and philosophy. I.V. Kireevsky noted different directions of interpretation of basicconcepts, showing the incomplete formation of the national discourse in Russia. Thus, appealing to the identity of the Slavic identity,Russian intellectuals treated it as ethnic and religious isolation, Russia's opposition to the whole European civilization. Anotherimportant concept - "nation" - is also interpreted in a wide range: as a symbol of the common people, as an element of the idea ofnationalism, as the determiner of the impact of the religious factor on the folk customs. In the Slavophil tradition two approaches to thecontent of the concept of nationality were manifested. By Aksakov and Samarin it is the sum of the spiritual, physiological propertiesconstituting the essence of the national qualities of the people. By Khomyakov and Kireevsky the religious component dominated theethnic group and therefore it was not a national feature, but rather an important marker in the delimitation of the Orthodox and Catholiccivilizations, each of which consisted of many ethnic entities in various stages of development. The Slavophil national discourse wasformed in the course of ethno-religious identification of the Great Russian people in the world historical process. Its dominant theme isto identify the impact of Europeanization, which began in the era of Peter I in Russian society. This problem is well studied in theRussian and foreign literature. The author believes it is important to focus on one aspect - the Slavophils' disclosure of the mechanismof international cooperation and its possible extrapolation to the Russian multi-ethnic community. Slavophil anti-Westernism was notdirected against Europe itself, but against its "blind imitators". Basing, as well as their implacable enemies - the Westerners, on theHegelian philosophy of history, they represent it as an ongoing process of human development, which synthesized the cultural andspiritual achievements of different peoples. But the spiritual foundations of the nation were not subject to transfer or borrowing, as anyimpact on them from the outside led to the de-nationalization, i.e., assimilation. At the same time, the Slavophils came to a conclusion ofthe discrepancy, and somewhere opposition of the very foundations of European and Russian cultures, spirituality that determined theopposite directions of historical development. It also made simply copying the European experience useless and threatening the veryexistence of the Russian nationality. One cannot ignore the messianic motifs of Slavophil ideas expressed in the sincere belief in thesoon coming of the era of leadership of the Russian people who preserved the purity of faith.

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