Slavophilism transformation into Pan-Slavism as Russian nationalism concept change

In the beginning of the 1870s in the conditions of enhancing thenational movements among the Slavs in Europe and a sharp aggravation of the situation in the Balkans, there was a significant increasein the interest of Russian Slavophiles to the Slavic movement. It would be wrong to say about the serving, with respect to foreign policyinterests of the empire, projects of the Slavophiles, but they responded to Russia's participation in the Eastern question, often requiringassistance to strengthen the liberation struggle of the Slavs. Gradually, the focus of the Slavophile intellectuals moved from Russia toEastern Europe. The theoretical foundation of Pan-Slavism is a gradual transition from the Slavophile idea of the Russian nationalidentity to the Slavic identity. Slavophiles actually abandon the category of the nation and extend the concept of nationality to thelanguage group. But its formation was seen by analogy with the history of the national unification of Germany or Italy, which made itpossible to see the Pan-Slavists' aim to form a much closer ethnic and political unity within the state. Lamansky tried to resolve thiscontradiction considering worlds (Slavic, Romance and Germanic) as the subjects of ethnic processes rather individual peoples. Thus, inhis work equivalent ethnic formations interacted and opposed one another. The logical development was the theory of cultural-historicaltypes by Danilevsky, which, according to Miliukov, replaced the category of "national ethos". At the same time, opportunities for suchan interpretation of nationalism were laid in the early Slavophile approaches to the understanding of the Russian nation. They originallyincluded the Russian and Little Russian and Belorussian ethnic groups, categorically denying their possibility of becoming independentnations. Little Russian and Belorussian peoples were seen as unhistorical, i.e. incapable of independent historical existence. Their futurewas associated with the development within a single state based on the Russian linguistic and cultural traditions declared universal andall-Russian. The preservation of national languages as local dialects and folk culture as a traditional element was allowed. In fact, PanSlavists applied these principles by extending them to all the Slav peoples. While rejecting the accusations in an effort to spread theRussian statehood for all Slavic peoples, and their gradual Russification, Slavophiles emphasized the voluntary nature of the long andgradual evolution of the Slavs into a closer unity. At the same time, they made no secret that only the autocratic state and the OrthodoxChurch are acceptable for the Slavs, treating any other form as the impact of a foreign European tradition, which is fatal for the Slavicidentity. The idea of the necessity of a common Slavic literary language, which the Russian language only could be, meant theinevitability of the universalization of social organization and cultural values, based on the Russian ones.

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