The Notion of Tsarist Autocracy at the End of Nineteenth – Beginning of Twentieth Century

Abstract

This article is concerned with the concept of autocracy (samoderzhavie) in the version of the Russian intellectuals and higher bureaucrats in the late 19th – early 20th century. The research is based on the great variety of historical sources — both published and archival. It is emphasized that the Slavophile conception of autocracy calls for the dramatic change of the political regime, and for great institutional reforms. Actually, it camouflaged the oppositional intentions of the Russian elites who could not be sincere while claiming their political allegiance. It was a mock loyalty rhetoric. It meant the definitive rejection of the concept of the absolute monarchy that was an ideological core of the Russian statehood of that time. The followers of the Slavophile political vision criticized the institutions of Polizeistaat that — from their point of view — had no strong connection to the Russian culture. This way they approached the idea of the constitutional limitation of the Tzar’s power. They supposed that the state could not be the only actor in the Russian history. They insisted on the necessity of the strict frames of its activity. The Slavophile rhetoric was a significant part of Russian intellectual life — among both the dedicated Slavophiles and those who accepted the Slavophile rhetoric to hide their antigovernmental way of thinking. It was no secret for many high-ranking bureaucrats of that time who did not accept the Slavophile point of view and who were too far from the Slavophile rhetoric. Russian Emperor’s statements mainly were far from the Slavophile rhetoric, too. The canonic way of the understanding of autocracy belonged not to the Tzars, but to the Slavophile thinkers who worked in the editorial offices of Moscow newspapers and magazines, or in Saint-Petersburg Ministry offices. One more time it proves the political loneliness of the monarch power that could not expect any support even on the part of its officers — bureaucrats or courtiers.