The Call for 'Christian Politics' in the Publitsistika of Vladimir Solov'yev

Abstract

"In 1884 the Russian philosopher and publitsist V1adimir Solov'yev (1853 -1900) wrote an article entitled '0 narodnosti i narodnykh delakh Rossii' ('On the Nationality and the National Affairs in Russia') in the journal Izvestiya Sankt-Peterburgskogo Slavyanskogo Blagotvoritel'nogo Obshchestva which evoked a strong reaction among the latter's Slavophile readers. In particular, his qualification of both the calling of the Varangians and the reforms of Tsar Peter the Great as 'great deeds of true patriotism' and acts of 'renunciation of national exclusivism and isolation' met with profound critique and disapproval (Solov'yev, 1883 - 88a, pp. 31 - 38). 1 In reaction to Solov'yev's sharp critique of nationalism and his call for a third act of national renunciation (for the spiritual regeneration of Russia), the editor of the Slavophile journal Rus', Ivan Aksakov, wondered how Russia could, on the one hand, fulfil its religious mission - in common with the Slavophiles, Solov'yev believed that Russia had such a mission - while, on the other hand, renouncing itself as it was supposed to do (Aksakov, 1884). Aksakov considered that there was an irreconcilable contra- diction between Solov'yev's call for renunciation and his sharp criticism of Russian nationalism on the one hand and his faith in Russia as a chosen nation on the other, while Solov'yev, as we shall see, regarded these as aspects of the same idea. In this article I argue that the reasoning behind Solov'yev's publitsistika, or social criticism,2 the most significant specimens of which deal with nationalism and the question of church union, lies in the idea of 'Christian politics' (,khristianskaya politika'), which he developed at the beginning of the 1880s and to which he remained faithful until the end of his life."