“The Slavic Question” in Pogodin’s Publicism (1830s — 1850s)

Abstract

In the period of the 1830s to the 1850s, Mikhail Pogodin (1800–1875) was one of the creators and spokesmen of the doctrine of "official nationality. Detailed analysis of his views on the “Slavic question” reveals not only his thoughts of the Russian policy, but also reconstructs his understanding of “nationality” and the processes of nation building in the southern and western Slavic nations, including Great and Little Russia. Pogodin’s intellectual formation occurred from the end of the 1810s to the beginning of the 1820s. The understanding of “people” and of the entire course of history that he developed during these years will remain a stable and characteristic feature of Pogodin's later works. In two letters submitted to the Minister of Education S. Uvarov in 1839 and 1842, and then in a series of letters and notes written during the Crimean War, Pogodin offers a program of active support for the national movement among the Slavic peoples. Pogodin suggested that the Russian empire should adopt a nationalist policy with the key solution being the solution of the “Polish question”, the fundamental obstacle preventing the winning over of other Slavic nations. As the decisive criterion of national identity, Pogodin explicitly suggests a linguistic one, that is, the adoption of a language of the “common people”. The analysis of Pogodin’s views shows that he was far from supporting existing public policy, leading to his proposition of a fundamentally different program.