The Slavophiles and the "Polish Question": 1840s - First Half of the 1860s

Abstract

For the whole variety of Russian nationalisms of the 19th century, as for the Slavophil circle, the “Polish question” is of great importance in theoretical terms. Russian nationalisms to one degree or another are formed as competing with the Polish national movement and are forced in some way to demarcate the “imaginary Russian” from the “Polish”. At the same time, the “Polish question” turns out to be a question of the political structure — domestic and foreign policy, possible/desirable imperial design and foreign policy course. The “Polish question” turns out to be closely intertwined with the “Slavic question”. This is not an indispensable feature of any Russian nationalism, but is directly related to Slavophilism, especially since the second half of the 1850s, when the issues of “Slavic community” and interaction with Slavic peoples, attitudes towards other Slavic national movements come to the fore. The article briefly shows that in spite of the possibility theoretically to assume the invariably great significance of the “Polish question” for the Slavophiles, in practice it occupies by no means an invariable place. Being in the focus of attention in the 1860s — primarily due to the rise of the Polish national movement, then the January Uprising of 1863 and subsequent government measures both in relation to the Kingdom of Poland and the Western provinces (Northwestern and Southwestern) — it becomes not only the subject of public polemics, but also encourages, and partly forces the participants of the Slavophil circle to formulate their positions on the fundamental questions of doctrine — thereby causing delimitation already within the Slavophil circle itself, and at the same time defining the journalistic core of Slavophilism, how it will be presented and, accordingly, perceived by the public in the 2nd half of the 1860s–1880s.