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Malinov A. The Image of Peter the Great in the Teachings of St. Petersburg Slavophiles

Alexei Malinov
Saint Petersburg State University;
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-1252-9193
E-mail: a.v.malinov@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. The article deals with the views of St. Petersburg followers of Slavophilism, professors of St. Petersburg University K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, V. I. Lamansky and O. F. Miller on Peter the Great and his reforms. It is noted that while agreeing with Slavophile criticism of the first Russian emperor for the gap between society and state, the violent nature of the reforms, the moral degradation of the church, thoughtless borrowings, etc., St. Petersburg Slavophiles rather positively assessed the personality of the Russian ruler himself, seeing, for example, in the image of the hard working tsar the development of the old Russian idea of a serving prince. The Slavophiles of St Petersburg recognised the necessity of Peter’s reforms and even their usefulness, disagreeing mainly with the form in which they were carried out. Their main reproach to Peter the Great was that he not only failed to foresee the consequences of his actions, but also had no clear purpose or image of the future of Russia; all his actions were prompted by the needs of the present. The Petersburg Slavophiles judged Peter the Great in terms of the distant results of his actions and their disagreement with the cultural-political direction that had become predominant in Russia, i. e. Westernism. Unlike the early Slavophiles, the later Slavophiles contrasted Russia and Western Europe more strongly, viewing them as two civilisational antipodes. It is concluded that the assessments of the St Petersburg Slavophiles significantly correct the Slavophile view of Peter the Great.

 

KEYWORDS: Peter the Great, Empire, Slavophiles, reform, Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Lamansky, Miller

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2022-2(16)-18-34
УДК 94(47)

 

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