Krot M. N.

The “soft power” of Russian political nationalism: a conservative concept of Russian supranational imperial statehood in the 2nd half of the 19th — early 20th century P. 28 – 38/

UDC 94(47).083

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2023.80.3.002

Abstract. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire faced challenges of nationalism, and to a large extent this activated discussions of the problems and prospects of Russian imperial statehood in conservative social discourse. The participants in such discussions insisted on the need to eliminate obvious obsolete elements in the Russian Empire and overcome its inherent heterogeneity, through further unification of the imperial space and the formation of a single Russian political nation. In the second half of the 19th century, Russian conservative ideology developed the concept of supranational imperial statehood. The present article analyzes the content of this historical concept. Many Russian conservatives supported political nationalism and assumed the priority of state unity over national interests, which resulted in rejection of forceful methods of suppressing the ethnic and cultural identity of nationalities living in the Empire. The conservatives advocated “moral conquests” of national outskirts, through non-conflict integrative methods that represented a strategy of soft power. Contrary to popular beliefs, our conservatives were opponents of the slogan “Russia for Russians” in its nationalist interpretation, and saw the danger of the predominance of the ethno-national principle in a multinational state. They feared that its implementation could lead to the establishment of a unilateral power dominant in imperial politics and, as a result, the “disappearance” of Russia as an empire. The conservative concept of the Russian supranational imperial statehood was based on the recognition of the need to preserve the multi-ethnic nature of the imperial society and denied the ethnic nationalism that was spreading in Europe, which, in contrast with the situation in the multinational Russian Empire, inevitably led to sharp interethnic conflicts that threatened the collapse of the multi-ethnic statehood.

 

Keywords: Russian Empire, conservatism, “soft power”, political nationalism, imperial statehood, unitarianism, M. N. Katkov, M. V. Yuzefovich, S. N.  Syromyatnikov.

 

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