Newspaper Controversy about the Institution of the Governorates General in the Western Russian Periphery

Authors

  • Aleksandr E. Kotov Saint Petersburg State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu02.2023.403

Abstract

Several significant events simultaneously took place in 1888: the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Rus’, the disaster in Borki and subsequent transformations in the railway business, the beginning of discussions about the project of land captains (head of zemstvo), the accession to the throne of Wilhelm II. In the history of Russian social thought, or rather, in the history of the conservative “camp”, this first years after the death of M. N. Katkov and I. S. Aksakov became a year of decisive crisis. The so-called “Russian conservatism” had never been a single entity. Ever since the 1860s, two different types of conservatism opposed each other aristocratic and national. One of the most important subjects of constant discussions between these camps was the Polish question, which encompassed not only national, but also social problems. It remained relevant in the late 1880s, when the nationalist camp was represented by the epigones of M. N. Katkov and by A. S. Suvorin. V. P. Meshcherskii and
K. N. Leontiev stood out among the class conservatives. Both ideological and literary trends were inspired by influential dignitaries: on the one hand, by K. P. Pobedonostsev, on the other, by T. I. Filippov. The most striking episode of this ideological struggle was the controversy around the Kiev celebrations dedicated to the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Rus’. The unexpected death at these celebrations of the Kiev Governor-General A. R. Drentel’n exacerbated the debate about the need to maintain the governor-general in the North-Western and South-Western regions. This institution at the time was regarded as emergency, and the controversy about it became at the same time a controversy about the extent to which the Polish question was resolved in these regions. In the ensuing discussion, the nationalist publications “Novoye Vremya” and “Kievlianin” supported the preservation of the governorates. The cohort of opponents of the governorates included the conservative “Grazhdanin”, the liberal
“Novosti”, and the Polish newspaper “Kraj”, which was published in St. Petersburg. A peculiar position was taken by the liberal “Kievskoe slovo”.

Keywords:

conservatism, nationalism, journalism, Suvorin, Meshcherskii, Pobedonostsev, Leontiev, Kiev Governorate General, Ukraine, Belarus

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
 

Author Biography

Aleksandr E. Kotov, Saint Petersburg State University

Dr. Sci. (History), Professor

References

Литература

Alekseeva S. I. K. P. Pobedonostsev v otsenke T. I. Filippova. Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev: myslitel’, uchenyi, chelovek. St. Petersburg, [s. n.], 2007, pp. 120–126. (In Russian)

Arzhakova L. M. Rossiiskaia istoricheskaia polonistika i pol’skii vopros v XIX veke. St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg University Press, 2010, 343 p. (In Russian)

Chernikova N. V. Portret na fone epokhi: kniaz’ Vladimir Petrovich Meshcherskii. Moscow, Politicheskaia entsiklopediia Publ., 2017, 479 p. (In Russian)

Dvornichenko A. Yu., Belousov M. S., Belousov A. S., Teslia A. A., Komzolova A. A., Kotov A. E., Banashkevich M., Gusman L. Iu., Puchenkov A. S., Samylovskaia E. A., Kudriavtseva R.-E. A. Nasledie Rechi Pospolitoi v imperskom intellektual’nom prostranstve. St. Petersburg, Vladimir Dal’ Publ., 2022, 476 p. (In Russian)

Fedorov D. A. Dmitrii Ivanovich Pikhno — redaktor-izdatel’ gazety “Kievlianin” (1879–1913 gg.). Izvestiia Laboratorii drevnikh tekhnologii, 2021, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 157–167. (In Russian)

Fetisenko O. L. “Geptastilisty”: Konstantin Leont’ev, ego sobesedniki i ucheniki: (Idei russkogo konservatizma v literaturno khudozhestvennykh i publitsisticheskikh praktikakh vtoroi poloviny XIX — pervoi chetverti XX veka). St. Petersburg, Pushkinskii Dom Press, 2012, 784 p. (In Russian)

Głębocki H. A Disastrous Matter: The Polish Question in the Russian Political Thought and Discourse of the Great Reform Age, 1856–1866. Krakow, Jagiellonian University Press, 2018, 352 p.

Khatuntsev S. V. K. N. Leont’ev o natsionalizme i natsional’noi politike. Stranitsy istorii i istoriografii otechestva, issue 3. Voronezh, Voronezh State University Press, 2001, pp. 128–143. (In Russian)

Kolman Kh. “Po stsenariiu vlastei?”: Pobedonostsev i prazdnovanie 900-letiia kreshcheniia Rusi v Kieve. Rodina, 2015, no. 2, pp. 72–74. (In Russian)

Kotov A. E. “Narodnost’” i “soslovnost’”: dva poliusa russkogo konservatizma. Khristianskoe chtenie, 2017, no. 2, pp. 288–306. (In Russian)

Kotov A. E. “Nravstvennyi Kavkaz” I. P. Kornilova. Rossiiskaia istoriia, 2018, no. 5, pp. 46–59. (In Russian)

Kotov A. E. “Nestlings from the Katkov Brood” in the Late 1880s: Nationalists in the Empire. Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 54, pp. 106–120.

Kuznetsov O. V. R. A. Fadeev: General i publitsist. Volgograd, VGU Press, 1998, 182 p. (In Russian)

Natsional’nye okrainy v politike Rossiiskoi imperii i russkoi obshchestvennoi mysli. Ed. by A. T. Urushadze. Rostov-on-Don, IuNTs RAN Press, 2020, 608 p. (In Russian)

Polunov A. Iu. K. P. Pobedonostsev v obshchestvenno-politicheskoi i dukhovnoi zhizni Rossii. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2010, 374 p. (In Russian)

Vedernikov V. V. Natsional’nyi vopros v zerkale konservativnoi publitsistiki. Gazeta “Vest’”. Istoricheskie zapiski, 2006, no. 9, pp. 137–169. (In Russian)

Downloads

Published

2023-12-29

How to Cite

Kotov, A. E. (2023). Newspaper Controversy about the Institution of the Governorates General in the Western Russian Periphery. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History, 68(4), 858–874. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu02.2023.403

Issue

Vol. 68 No. 4 (2023)

Section

Round table

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.