Russian Westernisers: Progressivism in Russian Thought

1. Moscow State Instituteof International Relations (MGIMO-University)Alexander ShishkinDepartment of Philosophy History of Russian Philosophy Lecture3Russian Westernisers

2. Russian Westernisers • VissarionBelinsky • Humanistic Personalism • Progressivism • Criticism of Slaphovilism • AleksandrHerzen • Criticism of Slaphovilism • Disappointment about the West • Peasant Socialism and Russia’s Historic Mission • Mikhail Bakunin • Revolutionarism • Antiteologism • Anarchism • Konstantin Kavelin • Personhood as Prerequisite for Progress • Underdevelopment of Personhood in Russia

3. VissarionBelinsky(1811–1848) AleksandrHerzen(1812–1870) TimofeyGranovsky(1813–1855) NikolayStankevich(1813–1840) Mikhail Bakunin(1814–1876) Konstantin Kavelin(1818–1885) Russian WesternisersProgressivism versus Traditionalism

4. VissarionBelinsky(1811 – 1848) • A View of Russian Literature in 1846(1847) • A Response to Moskvityanin(1847) • Letter to N. V. Gogol(1847) Principal Writings

5. VissarionBelinskyHumanistic Personalism I thank you most humbly, EgorFedorovich[Hegel], I acknowledge your philosophical prowess, butwith all due respect to your philosophical cap and gown, I have the honor to inform you that if I should succeed in climbing to the highest rung of the ladder of progress, even then I would ask you torender me an account of all the victims of life and history, of all the victims of chance, superstition, the Inquisition, Philip II, and so forth. VissarionBelinsky.Letter to V. P. Botkin.

6. VissarionBelinskyHumanistic Personalism Otherwise I should hurl myself head first from that very top rung. I do not want happiness, even as a gift, if I cannot be easy about the fate of all my brethren, my own flesh and blood. They say that there can be no harmony about dissonance;that may be all very pleasant and proper for music lovers, but certainly not for those who have been picked out to express the idea of dissonance by their fate. VissarionBelinsky.Letter to V. P. Botkin.

7. VissarionBelinskyProgressivism Russia sees her salvation not in mysticism or asceticismor pietism, but in the successes of civilization, enlightenment, and humanity. What she needs is not sermons (she has heard enough of them!) or prayers (she has repeated them too often!), but the awakening in the people of a sense of their human dignity lost for so many centuries amid dirt and refuse; she needs rights and laws conforming not to the preaching of the church but to common sense and justice,and their strictest possible observance. VissarionBelinsky.Letter to N. V. Gogol.

8. VissarionBelinskyProgressivism Instead of which she presents the dire spectacle of a country <…>where there are not only any guarantees for individuality, honor and property, but even no police order, and where there is nothing but vast corporations of official thieves and robbers of various descriptions. VissarionBelinsky.Letter to N. V. Gogol.

9. VissarionBelinsky Criticism of Slavophilism The existence and importance of this literary coterie is purely negative… The positive aspect of their doctrines consists in some misty and mystical presentiment of the victory of the East over the West, the groundlessness of which is revealed by facts of reality, whether taken together or each on its own. VissarionBelinsky.A View of RussianLiterature in 1846.

10. VissarionBelinsky Criticism of Slavophilism But the negative aspect of their teaching deserves greater attention – not in what they say against the allegedly decaying West (the Slavophilesmisunderstand the West completely because they measure it by an oriental stick),but in what they say against Russian Europeanism; and much of what they say about it makes sense. VissarionBelinsky.A View of RussianLiterature in 1846.

11. AleksandrHerzen(1812 – 1870) • Letters on the Study of Nature(1845–1846) • From the Other Shore(1850) • On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia(1851) • The Russian People and Socialism(1851) • My Pastand Thoughts (1852–1866) Principal Writings

12. AleksandrHerzenCriticism of Slavophilism • History is irreversible and cannot be undone. • History “is rich in fabric”, it has “no need for old clothes”; all attempts at restoration has never been anything but “masquerades”. • Slavophiles emphasize the principle of historicism, but tend to forget, ironically, that whatever happened in Russia after Peter I is no less historical than whatever happened before him. • The Slavophile ideals are singularly unattractive. • Pre-Petrine Russia was no better than the post-Petrine one; however, it is the pre-Petrine past that the Slavophiles seek to restore, even though they deny it. • The Byzantine legacy is neither valuable in itself, nor relevant, certainly by no means more relevant than the legacy of the West. • The impact of Orthodox Christianity has been wholly negative. • Cultural isolationism is unpromising. • Traditions are generally never enough: roots have to be fertilized to give shoots. • They are particularly inadequate in the case of Russia: Slavic national character is “feminine” (“plastic” and accommodating) and calls to be supplemented.

13. Aleksandr Herzen Disappointment about the West • Westernism has proved to be an Utopia. • We have believed in Europe as Christians believe in Paradise. • But Europe has proved to be unworthy of that belief. • Contemporary Europe is a Philistine society. • Our European ideal is comprised of the genuine elements that are no longer. • Whatever was the pride and glory of Europe: the knightly valour, the aristocratic fineness, the Protestant gravity, the independent spirit of Britons, the extravagance of Italian artists, the sharp reason of French Encyclopedists – has transformed into Philistinism: contemporary Europe worships no God but Capital. • Europe has ceased to play the role as a progressive historical force; Western institutions are “dead”. • Europe has become socially and politically impotent. • Contemporary Europe is no loner capable to realise its own – Socialist – Ideal. • Odd as it may sound, Russia seems to be able to do it.

14. AleksandrHerzenPeasant Socialism and Russia’s Historic Mission Since the mist that enveloped the February revolution has dissipated,the confusion has been replaced by sharp simplicity, – there are but two questions of interestthat remain: the social question and the Russian question.In essence, these two questions are one. The free and rational developmentof Russian national lifecoincides with the aspirationsof Western socialism. AleksandrHerzen. My Pastand Thoughts.

15. Timofey Granovsky(1813-1855) • Lectures on Medieval History(1849/50) • On the Contemporary State and Importance of Universal History(1852) Principal Writings

16. Nikolay Stankevich(1813-1840) • Correspondence(publ. 1858) Principal Writings

17. Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) • The Reaction in Germany(1842) • A Philosophical Discoures on the Devine Ghost, the Real World and the Man(1870-1871) • The Knouto-Germanic Empire and the Social Revolution (1871) • God and State(1871) • Statism and Anarchism (1873) Principal Writings

18. Mikhail BakuninRevolutionarism Revolutionary propaganda is in its deepest sense the negation of the existing conditions of the State, for, with respect to its innermost nature, it has no other program than the destruction of whatever order prevails at the time… Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too! Mikhail Bakunin. The Reaction in Germany.

19. Mikhail BakuninAntiteologism The idea of God implies the abdicationof human reason and justice;it is the most decisive negationof human liberty, and necessarilyends in the enslavement of mankind,both in theory and practice. <…>If God is, man is a slave;now man can and must be free;then God does not exist. Mikhail Bakunin.God and State.

20. Mikhail BakuninAnarchism … despotism resides not so muchin the form of the Statebut in the very principleof the State and political power… Mikhail Bakunin. The Knouto-Germanic Empire and the Social Revolution.

21. Konstantin Kavelin(1818 – 1885) • An Examination of Juridical Life in Ancient Russia(1847) • The Tasks of Psychology(1872) • The Tasks of Ethics(1884) Principal Writings

22. Konstantin KavelinPersonhood as Prerequisite for Progress When we say thatthe people acts, thinks, feelswe express ourselvesin an abstract manner:as a matter of fact,the people consists ofindividuals, persons,and it is they who act, think and feel. Personhood, conscious of itsinfinite, unconditional value,is the necessary condition fora people’s spiritual development. Konstantin Kavelin.An Examination of Juridical Life in Ancient Russia.

23. Konstantin KavelinUnderdevelopment of Personhood in Russia In itself it [the communitarian principle]had no potential for life and development.It was ever on decline, because it was not based on the personality principle,the first necessary conditionfor any civic order. Konstantin Kavelin.An Examination of Juridical Life in Ancient Russia.

24. The Westernisers versus the Slavophiles The Westernisers The Slavophiles Social ontology Culture is the outcome of conscious personal creative efforts Culture is the outcome of spontaneous collective creative work Political ontology Political entities are established by Social Contract Political entities are the outcome of “organic” development Philosophy of history Social progress Striving for an ideal state Cultural priorities Reason and science Faith and religion Sociopolitical program Universalism as exemplified by Western Europe Cultural pluralism and traditionalism

25. Questions?