«The only voice that government gives ear to»

Abstract

The published letter of Y. Samarin to A. Herzen is dated May 9, 1858. The first years of reign of Alexander II appeared the be the period of social revival. The atmosphere of upcoming reforms significantly changed the old attitudes and led to the unexpected rapprochements, including Herzen’s rapprochement with the Slavophiles. This rapprochement was stimulated not only by practical reasons, but also by the ideological proximity that reached its peak in 1857–1858. The closest to Herzen’s views at this time were position of I. Aksakov, who started to actively contact Herzen and send him his works. Despite different view of the past, Herzen and Slavophiles turned to be very close in their visions of the future. At the same time, Slavophiles significantly modified their views in 1856, as the possibilities of practical action started to open, and  began to compromise for partial realization of their goals. Samarin responded to the publication of the chapter of Herzen’s My Past and Thoughts, that contained the recollections of Moscow Slavophiles, by challenging some Herzen’s evaluations and simultaniously proposing a compromised vision of “common past”, focused on the shared tasks. Though the dialogue, indicated in the letter, didn't take place (Herzen actually did not close the dialogue in his answer to Samarin given in the letter to Aksakov), Herzen took some remarks of the collocutor into account and made some adjustments to the image of the Slavophiles in next edition of My Past and Thoughts (1861).