D.N. Sverbeev and Slavophiles

For citation: Pirozhkova T.F. D.N. Sverbeev i slavjanofily [D. Sverbeev and Slavophiles]. Mediaskop 2. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2622

@ Tatiana F. Pirozhkova

Doctor of Philology, Professor at the Chair of History of Russian Literature and Journalism, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), ruslit.msu@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article is devoted to an unstudied issue of relations between D. Sverbeev and Slavophiles, to a special place he had among feuding groupings of social thought in the 19th century ‒ Westerners and Slavophiles. People turned out between different groupings have usually incurred displeasure and a desire to ‘stick’ them to one of the sides. However, Mr. Sverbeev could position himself so that people around deeply respected his opinion whether they agreed with it or not.]

According to the ‘Notes’ that Sverbeev worked at in the last years of his life, he judged Slavophiles even more harshly than Westerners: he didn`t like their ‘national haughtiness’, mythologization of the people ‒ true bearer of Russian origins of life. He condoned the Baltic barons judged by Slavophiles for enlargement of the Latvians and Estonians without lands (1819) because at this time, the idea of allotment of land to them barely came to someone’s mind, he didn`t approve the protectionist system in relation to the Russian industry and trade that, from his point of view, disturbs the freedom of international relations.

He sometimes reflected his attitude to Slavophiles in the memoirs ‘besides the point’ and ‘between the lines’ not always naming the addressee of the criticism, especially when this involved those recently died, in order not to conduct a discourse with those unable to interpose an objection (A. Khomyakov, K. Aksakov), or those still alive (Yu. Samarin, F. Chizhov). However, he sometimes criticized people unceasingly, even if it was going about the ‘water under the bridge’, for the acts he couldn’t forgive in the latter days of his life. For example, a poet N. Yazykov in whom ‘Slavophiles teased a religious and national sense’, wrote in 1844 pamphlets on the people respected by Sverbeev (T. Granovsky, A. Gertsen, P. Chaadaev) ‒ ‘To strangers’. Sverbeev publicly judged this act, which caused to quarrel between Westerners and Slavophiles, led to breach in long friendly ties that had fatal consequences for Sverbeev`s saloon where many representatives of different sects of the Russian social thought met. Wanting to avoid unpleasant clashes, the owners of the saloons, according to Sverbeev, took ‘Short acquaintances’ from the same circle. In 1850, the Sverbeev`s salon ceased to exist.

Keywords: Westerners, Slavophiles, saloon, memoirs.

Notes

Bessonov Petr. Knjaz' Vladimir Aleksandrovich Cherkasskij [Pyotr Bessonov. Knyaz Vladimir Cherkassky]. Russian archive, 1878. Book 2. P. 206.

[D.A. Homjakov]. Neskol'ko slov o Dmitrii Nikolaeviche Sverbeeve [D.A. Khomyakov. A Few Words about Dmitry Sverbeev]. In: Sverbeev D.N. Moi zapiski[My Notes]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2014. P. 6.

Gogol' N.V. (1952) Polnoe sobranie sochinenij[Full Collection of Works]. Moscow, vol. XIII.

Golicyn N.V. (1918) P.Ja. Chaadaev i E.A. Sverbeeva (Iz neizdannyh bumag Chaadaeva) [P. Chaadaev and E. Sverbeeva (from the unpublished papers of Chaadaev)]. VE. Book 1–4. P. 234.

Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature and Art. F. 598. Op. 1. No 891. L. 4.

Pis'mo A.I. Turgenevu <1845 g.> [A Letter to A. Turgenev, 1845]. Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature and Art. F. 598. Op. 1. No 891. L. 117.

Pis'mo A.N. Popovu ot 1.II.1850 g. [A Letter to A. Popov Dated by 1.1.1850]. Russian archive, 1886, no 3, p. 353.

Pis'mo D.N. Sverbeevu bez daty [A Letter to Sverbeev without a Date]. Russian State Archives of Literature and Art. F. 472. Op. 1. No 48. L. 1 Ob.; F. 472. Op. 1. No 103. L. 20.

Pis'mo ot 7.XII.(bez goda), datiruemoe nami 1848 g. po upominaniju v nem o smerti E.A. Elaginoj, sluchivshejsja v etom godu [A Letter from 7, December (no year) Dated by us by 1848 Basing on Mentioning in it the Death of E. Elagina That Took Place That Year]. Russian State Archives of Literature and Art.  F. 472. Op. 1. No 642. L. 25.

Pis'mo S.T. Aksakova I.S. Aksakovu ot 15.XI.<1848 g.> [A Letter by S. Aksakov to I. Aksakov Dated by 15.11.1848]. Research Department of Manuscripts. F. 3. К. III. No. 22b. L. 18.

Sverbeev D.N. (2014) Moi zapiski [My Notes; ed. by  Shmidt S.O.]. Moscow: Nauka Publ.

Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshhenija [Journal of the Ministry of popular education], 1900, vol. CCCXXX, pp. 408–410.

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