“The Slavic Locker” in Suvorin's Office

Slavophilism on the Pages of “Novoe Vremya” in the Early 1880s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the reception of Slavophilism on the pages of Suvorin's “Novoe Vremya”. The vastness of this problematic leaves the opportunity to outline it only in general terms. Characterizing Suvorin's nationalism, the author considers it inappropriate to look for a strict ideological system in it, pointing only to its closeness to the main political positions of the Slavophiles, primarily those related to the relations between the authorities and society, as well as to foreign policy issues. Apologetics of Slavophilism also occupied a significant place on the pages of the latter. The newspaper spoke extremely respectfully of the personal qualities of I.S. Aksakov and actively opposed both the vulgar Western thesis about the “retrograde” nature of Slavophilism and the then widespread identification of Pan-Slavism with nihilism. The most striking example of such apologetics was the 1881 series of essays “People and Parties”, which was actually dedicated to Slavophilism and Westernism. The author refuted the traditional Western argument, according to which the Slavophiles were supporters of returning to the past, and characterized the Slavophiles as a progressive and democratic movement, which he compared with the British Whigs. The foreign policy views of “Novoe Vremya” — primarily related to the Slavic question — also largely coincided with Aksakov's. Traditional for publications of the “Russian trend” was criticism of Russian “groundless” diplomacy and an appeal to the concept of “national egoism” — which, however, the editors initially tried to combine with the idea of “Slavic reciprocity”.