Examine with Reference to Their Views on Religion, the Common People, Law, Culture and Other Matters the Contrast Drawn by the Slavophiles Between the Character of the Russians and the Character of the Western European Peoples.

Andrzej Walicki explains in his History of Russian Thought: From Enlightenment to Marxism that “The term ‘Slavophilism’ was originally used as a gibe to underline a certain narrow tribal particularism”1 that was seen as characteristic of a group of ideologists which was formed in the late 1830’s in direct opposition to Westernism. The conflict between these two groups, the Slavophiles on one hand and the Westernisers on the other, was due in large part to the influence of Chaadaev and Uvarov, who established the “assumption that Russia and Europe were antithetical to one another.”2 Chaadaev’s influence on the Slavophiles went further, for his Philosophical Letter, published in 1836 in the journal Телескоп, was a piece of literature which, along with several others, portrayed Russia in such a negative light as to unite these thinkers behind their common fear of western influences and practices. These were all wealthy, conservative, patriotic, and landed nobles who were influenced to a large degree by German romanticism from the late 18th Century, as well as by two of the philosophers from the movement of German idealism, Georg Hegel and Friedrich Schelling. Hugh Seton-Watson makes note of this curious contradiction; that the Slavophiles held on to essentially western and secular doctrines3 while promoting their idealistic faith in the “native and primarily Slavic elements in the social life and culture of ancient Russia,” as well as in the Orthodox Church. An examination of the views that these men held involves a broad and in-depth look at numerous factors, of which several will now be explored. The Slavophiles were opposed to associating Russia with the West; however, they did still have some positive opinions or reactions to it. Kireevsky illustrates this quite clearly with his confession in A Reply to A. S. Khomyakov: “To be honest, even now I still love the West – I am bound to it by many indissoluble emotional ties.”4 Their favourable views of the West were