Russian Conservatism in the First Quarter of the 19th Century

The article examines the features of the Russian conservatism in the period of its emergence in the fi rst quarter of the 19th century. The specifi c character of the Russian conservatism lay in the fact that it had been conceived as a reaction to the radical westernization. The manifestations and main symbols of this process in the 17th — early 19th centuries included the reforms of Peter The Great and the extreme (for the time) liberalism of Alexander I, which had provoked the opposition on the part of the conservative-minded nobility. The project of constitutional reforms associated with in the name of M. M. Speransky was of particular importance. The list also included Gallomania, the form of Westernism among the Russian nobility; Napoleonic aggression against the Russian Empire, the Treaty of Tilsit 1807 and the Patriotic War of 1812, as well as an attempt to create a so-called “all-Christian state” in the spirit of the declarations of the Holy Alliance, which from 1817 to 1824 had actually served to deprive the Orthodox Church of the dominant status. Not without reason, Russian conservatives perceived these phenomena and events as a threat that might lead to the destruction of all the fundamental foundations of the traditional society: autocratic power, the Orthodox Church and religion, the Russian language, national traditions, class society boundaries, patriarchal life, etc. The unprecedented nature of the challenge generated a conservative response designed to protect the fundamental traditional values. The main axioms of the emerging Russian conservatism were formulated as a result of confl icts with representatives of the Russian liberal Westernism. These deemed the imitation of revolutionary and liberal Western European models inadmissible, and proclaimed the need to rely on one’s own traditions (linguistic, religious, political, cultural, domestic) and such values as patriotism, including the cultivation of national feelings and devotion to the autocratic monarchy. Having blocked the constitutional project by M. M. Speransky, conservatives played a huge role as ideologists and military statesmen in the events of 1812–1814, had a signifi cant impact on the formation of the university education system, and actually achieved the rejection of the ecumenical experiment in 1824, which would de facto deprive the Orthodox Church of its dominant status. During the struggle of the “Orthodox opposition” against Western European mysticism and Freemasonry, the system of Orthodox values had a signifi cant impact on the formation of the Russian conservatism. The greatest role in the formation and development of the Russian conservatism in the fi rst quarter of the 19th century was played by such fi gures as A. S. Shishkov, F. V. Rostopchin, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, A. А. Arakcheev, M. L. Magnitsky, A. S. Sturdza and Archimandrite Photius (Spassky). The central fi gure of the Russian conservatism was N.M. Karamzin.