Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Slavophiles and Zapadniki

For 200 or 300 years, philosophical and political arguments have been going on between Slavophiles and Zapadniki in Russia. The Slavophiles contend that Russian culture and tradition are superior to anything non-Russian. Zapadniki, often labeled Westernizers, advocate making Russia modern and more like the economic, industrial, and military powers of Western Europe.

Zapadnik Peter the Great

Peter and Catherine, the greats, would be considered Zapadniki. The final tsars of Russia, especially Alexander III and Nicholas II (and their tutor Pobedonostsev) were Slavophiles. It's been argued that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Slavophile organization (without the religious connotations).

It may be that Putin is leading Russia as a Slavophile as he seeks a unifying ideology.

Putin, in Need of Cohesion, Pushes Patriotism

Slavophile Nicholas II

Over 12 years as the principal leader of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin has brought the same ruthless pragmatism to a wide range of problems — separatist wars, gas wars, rebellious oligarchs and a collapsing ruble.

Now he is facing a problem he has never encountered before… Mr. Putin needs an ideology — some idea powerful enough to consolidate the country around his rule.

One of the few clear strategies to emerge in recent months is an effort to mobilize conservative elements in society…

Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s press secretary and close aide, said in an interview, “Ideology is very important. Patriotism is very important. Without dedication from people, without the trust of people, you cannot expect a positive impact of what you are doing, of your job.”

Slavophile Putin

Ideas are changing inside the ruling class, as well. The pro-Western, modernizing doctrine of President Dmitri A. Medvedev has been replaced by talk about “post-democracy” and imperial nostalgia. Leading intellectuals are challenging the premise, driven into this country 20 years ago, that Russia should seek to emulate liberal Western institutions. “Western values” are spoken of with disdain…

Events of the last year have breathed life into this anti-Western argument. The debt crisis stripped the euro zone of its attraction as an economic model, and then as a political one. The Arab uprisings have left Russia and the United States divided by an intellectual chasm. The Russian Orthodox Church casts the West as unleashing dangerous turbulence on the world.

Mr. Peskov said that Mr. Putin “understands pretty well that there are no general Western values,” but that he views this as a period of severe historic crisis…

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Labels: history, ideology, politics, Russia