Encyclopedia of Russian History

by James Millar

  In contrast to the Slavophiles, the Westerniz-ers believed in the productive role of humanity’s rational development and progress, the positive significance of the modernization process initiated by Peter the Great, and the necessity to unify Russia with the European West. Unlike the Slavophiles, this movement had no homogeneous philosophy and ideology, representing rather a loose alliance of different trends of literary and philosophical thought that were strongly influenced by German idealism and, in particular, by Hegel. Radical democrats, such as Vissarion Belinsky, Alexander Herzen, or Nikolai Ogarev, proposed ideas that differed from the liberal persuasions of Timofei Gra-novsky, Konstantin Kavelin, and Boris Chicherin. Moderate criticism of the European West and nascent mass society, common to many Western-izers, found its utmost expression in the peasant socialism of Herzen and Ogarev, who, like the Slavophiles, idealized the peasant commune as a pattern of organic social life needed by Russia.

  Nikolai Chernyshevsky and other revolutionary democratic enlighteners of the 1860s, who further developed the Westernizers’ ideas while upholding the value of the communal foundations of Russian peasant society, paved the way for the radical populist ideology of Pyotr Lavrov, Pyotr Tkachev, and Mikhail Bakunin and the liberal populism of Nikolai Mikhailovsky. Radical populist ideology influenced the Russian version of Marxism considerably. The “return to the soil” movement, headed by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Strakhov, and Apollon Grigoriev, was a reaction to this trend of thought. In the 1870s, Nikolai Danilevsky developed his philosophical theory of historical-cultural types inspired by the ideal of Pan-Slavic unity with the leadership of Russia. Skeptical of both the Pan-Slavic ideal and the contemporary stage of European liberal egalitarian society, Konstantin Leontiev proposed, in his version of the conservative theory of historical-cultural types, the ideal of Byzantinism preserving the communal and hierarchical traditional foundations of Russian culture and society in isolation and opposition to the liberal-individualistic European West. THE SEARCH FOR THE UNIVERSAL VISION OF HISTORY AND THE CHALLENGE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century were marked by the growing popularity of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy, and Vladimir Soloviev in Russian intellectual circles. As one of the prophets of his time, Tolstoy, in the tradition of Rousseau, put forward a criticism of industrial civilization and state power in the capitalist age and proposed his utopian ideal of Christian anarchism glorifying the archaic peasant way of life as a radical denial of the existing social order and alienation. Based on the ideas of Plato and the neo-Platonists Leibniz and Schelling, Soloviev’s doctrine of absolute idealism interpreted history as a field of human creativity, a realization of Godmanhood-that is, the permanent cooperation of God and human. In his philosophy of history, Soloviev moved from the understanding of Russia’s role as the intermediary link between the East and West to the ideal of theocratic rule unifying the Church power (the pope) with earthly rule of the Russian tsar, and finally came to a profound criticism of theocratic rule. On the final stage of his philosophical career, he gave a very critical evaluation of the autocratic tradition of the Moscow Kingdom and the Russian Empire that became the source of inspiration for Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Nikolai Berdyayev, Vyacheslav Ivanov, and other Silver Age religious philosophers who revealed the negative traits of the alliance between the Orthodox Church and the State and called for the free creativity of religious laymen in order to bring about radical change in Russian social and cultural life.

  After the Bolshevik Revolution the majority of prominent Russian thinkers had to migrate abroad. Berdyayev, Georgy Fedotov, and Merezhkovsky continued there the tradition of the philosophy of

  ILMINSKY, NIKOLAI IVANOVICH

  history based on the idea of unity of Russia and Europe. At the opposite pole, national conservative isolationism found its expression in the works of Pyotr Alexeyev, Pyotr Bicilli, Nikolai Trubetskoy, Pyotr Savitsky, Lev Karsavin, and other representatives of the Eurasian movement. The liberal and conservative nationalist visions of Russian history are still present in contemporary thought. The liberal paradigm coined by Andrei Sakharov was preserved in the writings of Yegor Gaidar, Boris Fyodorov, Grig-ory Yavlinsky, and others. Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s vision of Russian history based on Berdyayev’s legacy is moderately conservative, while Alexander Dugin and other neo-Eurasians form the extreme right wing, advocating an isolationist nationalist approach to Russia’s past and present. See also: BERDYAYEV, NIKOLAI ALEXANDROVICH; CHAA-DAYEV, PETER YAKOVLEVICH; DECEMBRIST MOVEMENT AND REBELLION; ENLIGHTENMENT, IMPACT OF; HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH; KARAMZIN, NIKOLAI MIKHAILOVICH; LOVERS OF WISDOM, THE; SLAVOPHILES; TOLSTOY, LEO NIKOLAYEVICH; WEST-ERNIZERS

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Berlin, Isaiah. (1978). Russian Thinkers. London: Hogarth. Florovsky, Georges. (1979-1987). Ways of Russian Theology. 2 vols., tr. Robert L. Nichols. Belmont, MA: Nordland. Glatzer-Rosenthal, Bernice, ed. (1986). Nietzsche in Russia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Kline, George. (1968). Religious and Anti-Religious Thought in Russia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lossky, Nicholas. (1951). History of Russian Philosophy. New York: International Universities Press. Pipes, Richard, ed. (1961). The Russian Intelligentsia. New York: Columbia University Press. Raeff, Marc. (1966). The Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia: The Eighteenth-Century Nobility. New York: Harcourt, Brace amp; World. Riasanovsky, Nicholas. (1952). Russia and the West in the Teaching of the Slavophiles: A Study of Romantic Ideology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Walicki, Andrzej. (1979). A History of Russian Thought from the Enlightenment to Marxism, tr. Helen An-drews-Rusiecka. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Zenkovsky, Vasilii. (1953). A History of Russian Philosophy, 2 vols., tr. George L. Kline. New York: Columbia University Press.

  BORIS GUBMAN

  IGOR

  (d. 945), second grand prince of Kiev, who, like his predecessor Oleg, negotiated treaties with Constantinople.

  Igor, the alleged son of Ryurik, succeeded Oleg around 912. Soon after, the Primary Chronicle reports, the Derevlyane attempted to regain their independence from the prince of Kiev. Igor crushed the revolt and imposed an even heavier tribute on the tribe. In 915, when the Pechenegs first arrived in Rus, Igor concluded peace with them, but in 920 he was forced to wage war. After that, nothing is known of his activities until 941 when, for unexplained reasons, he attacked Byzantium with 10,000 boats and 40,000 men. His troops ravaged the Greek lands for several months. However, when the Byzantine army returned from Armenia and from fighting the Saracens, it destroyed Igor’s boats with Greek fire. In 944 Igor sought revenge by allegedly launching a second attack. When the Greeks sued for peace, he conceded, sending envoys to Emperor Romanus Lecapenus to confirm the agreements that Oleg had concluded in 907 and 911. The treaty reveals that Igor had Christians in his entourage. They swore their oaths on the Holy Cross in the Church of St. Elias in Kiev, while the pagans swore their oaths on their weapons in front of the idol of Perun. In 945 the Derevlyane once again revolted against Igor’s heavy-handed measures; when he came to Iskorosten to collect tribute from them, they killed him. His wife, the esteemed Princess Olga from Pskov, then became regent for their minor son Svyatoslav. See also: GRAND PRINCE; KIEVAN RUS; PECHENEGS; PRIMARY CHRONICLE; RURIKID DYNASTY

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Vernadsky, George. (1948). Kievan Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

  MARTIN DIMNIK

  ILMINSKY, NIKOLAI IVANOVICH

  (1822-1891), professor of Turkic Languages at Kazan University and lay Russian Orthodox missionary, known as “Enlightener of Natives.”

  Nikolai Ilminsky gave up a brilliant academic career to devote himself to missionary work among

  IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION

  the non-Russians. He was convinced that only through the mother tongue and native teachers and clergy could the nominally baptized and animists become true Russian Orthodox believers and thus resist conversion to Islam. This conviction was at th
e heart of what became known as the “Ilminsky System.”

  In 1863, while still holding the chair of Turkic languages at both Kazan University and Kazan Theological Academy, Ilminsky established the Kazan Central Baptized-Tatar School, which served as his showcase and model for non-Russian schools and whose thousands of graduates spawned numerous village schools. In 1867 Ilminsky founded the Gurri Brotherhood, which supported the growing network of native schools, and set up the Kazan Translating Commission. By 1891 the Commission had produced 177 titles in over a dozen languages; by 1904 the Commission had produced titles in twenty-three languages. For most of the languages, this required the creation of alphabets, grammars, primers, and dictionaries. Starting with the baptized Tatars of the Kazan region, Ilminsky’s activities extended to the multinational Volga-Ural area, to Siberia, and to Central Asia. But disciples carried his system further: Ivan Kasatkin, for example, founded the Orthodox Church of Japan.

  Ilminsky’s system encountered strong opposition from Russian nationalists who saw in the Russian language the “cement of the Empire” and feared that his approach encouraged national self-esteem among the minorities. Yet by demonstrating the fervent piety of his students and above all stressing that the alternative was defection to Islam, he was able to obtain the backing of powerful figures in the government and the Church, including Konstantin Pobedonostev. Ilminsky even became a quasi-official advisor on nationality affairs and as such promoted strict censorship, unfavorable appointments, and restrictive laws for Muslims and Buddhists.

  The impact of Ilminsky’s system on preliterate nationalities was revolutionary, as these peoples, equipped with a written language and the beginnings of a national intelligentsia, experienced a national awakening. Such national leaders as the Chuvash Ivan Yakovlev and the Kazakh Ibrai Al-tynsarin were Ilminsky’s disciples and prot?g?s, while Lenin’s father worked closely with Ilminsky in promoting non-Russian education in Simbirsk Province. This may explain why Lenin’s nationality policy, summarized as “national in form, socialist in content” was remarkably similar to Ilminsky’s system, which was defended by his supporters as “national in form, Orthodox in content.” See also: EDUCATION; NATIONALITIES POLICIES, TSARIST; RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH; TATARSTAN AND TATARS

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Dowler, Wayne. (2001). Classroom and Empire: The Politics of Schooling Russia’s Eastern Nationalities, 1860-1917. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Kreindler, Isabelle. (1977). “A Neglected Source of Lenin’s Nationality Policy.” Slavic Review 36:86-100.

  ISABELLE KREINDLER

  IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION

  To paraphrase the nineteenth-century historian of Russia, Vasily Klyuchevsky, the history of Russia is the history of migration. The Kievan polity itself was founded by Varangian traders in the ninth century, then populated by the steady migration and population growth of Slavic agriculturalists. By the sixteenth century the attempt to control population movement became one of the most important tasks of the Muscovite state. Serfdom (i.e., elimination of the right of peasants to move from one lord to another) was entrenched in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by the tsars of Muscovy in order to ensure that their servitors could feed their horses and buy sufficient weaponry. Serfdom’s logic led to an elaborate system of controls over movement within the country and of course precluded any possibility of legal emigration for the vast majority of the population. The Muscovite polity also developed mechanisms to prevent the departure of its servitors and elites. Peasant flight- often to join the Cossacks in border regions-was not a negligible phenomenon, and there were several exceptional mass emigrations. Most notable was the departure of an estimated 400,000 Crimean Tatars, Nogai, and Kalmyks in the late eighteenth century after the annexation of their lands by the Russian Empire, and another mass emigration in the 1850s and 1860s of Adygs, Cherkess, Nogai, and others after the completion of the conquest of the Caucasus. But regular yearly emigration did not occur on a significant scale until the 1860s.

  IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION

  Russian Jewish exiles arrive in New York City. © BETTMANN/CORBIS

  Thus it would be logical to link the first appearance of steady yearly emigration with the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. But this relationship is not so clear. Of the four million emigrants from the Russian Empire from 1861 to 1914, less than 3 percent were Russians. The vast majority were Jews and Germans, neither of which had been under serfdom. It was probably not serfdom so much as the commune, with its systems of collective responsibility and partible inheritance, that kept emigration figures so low for Russians. A massive emigration of Germans began in the 1870s in reaction to the abolition of their exemption from military conscription and continued due to the increasingly serious shortage of fertile lands in the Russian Empire as a result of population growth. Nearly 1.5 million Jews emigrated from 1861 to 1914, both in reaction to ongoing government repression and pogroms and in order to take advantage of civic equality and economic opportunities available in the United States and elsewhere. The sudden and massive increase in emigration also had a great deal to do with the transportation revolution, which brought cheap railroad and steamship tickets, making intercontinental travel possible for those of modest means.

  While the tsar selectively recruited and encouraged immigrants from Europe to serve as soldiers, technicians, architects, and engineers on a fairly extensive scale by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the second half of the eighteenth century was the heyday of immigration to the Russian Empire. Inspired by physiocratic notions that the population is the fundamental source of wealth, and eager to populate the vast, fertile, untilled southern steppe that they had conquered, empresses Elizabeth and Catherine created very favorable conditions for immigrants in the mid-eighteenth century. These included free grants of land, permanent exemption from military service, temporary

  IMPERIAL RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

  exemption from taxes, and even a degree of religious freedom. The result was a rapid and massive immigration that slowed only in the mid- to late nineteenth century as the amount of free land declined. By the late nineteenth century, as a result of rapid population growth after the emancipation of the serfs, a shortage of land led the regime to reverse its encouragement of immigration and impose some serious restrictions upon it.

  Immigration did not take place on a major scale at any period under Soviet rule. While technical experts were recruited from the West in the 1930s, and workers came to the Soviet Union in relatively small numbers in the 1920s, and then again in the 1950s, on the whole, immigration was remarkably small in scale throughout the entire Soviet period.

  Likewise, emigration was illegal throughout the Soviet era, and it occurred on a significant scale only on an exceptional basis. During the Civil War, before the Bolsheviks established firm control over the entire territory of the state, a major emigration of political opponents of the regime and others occurred. By some estimates roughly 2 million people left from 1918 to 1922. The next major exodus occurred as a result of World War II, which left millions of Soviet civilians and soldiers as displaced peoples in areas occupied by Russia’s allies. Millions were returned after the war-often against their will-as a result of allied agreements. But at least a half million were able to emigrate permanently.

  The next major wave of emigration came in the 1970s when Soviet Jews were allowed to leave in relatively substantial numbers. While only about 10,000 Soviet Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1970, an average of 22,800 emigrated per year from 1971 to 1980. Soviet Jewish emigration was sharply curtailed in the 1980s, but when restrictions were first eased in 1988 and then effectively removed in 1990, a mass emigration of roughly a million Jews occurred. Soviet German emigration followed a similar pattern, though fewer Germans were allowed to emigrate prior to 1988. A mass emigration of nearly 1.5 million Soviet Germans, encouraged by the German policy of automatically granting citizenship (and generous access to welfare and public ser
vices), occurred from 1988 to 1996. In the 1990s economic difficulties led to large emigrations of Russians and other groups as well. This wave of emigration began to slow by the end of the 1990s, but it remained important and a matter of concern at the beginning of the twenty-first century, especially considering the continuing high rates of emigration among well-educated and highly trained young people. See also: DEMOGRAPHY; GERMAN SETTLERS; JEWS; NATIONALITIES POLICY, SOVIET; NATIONALITIES POLICY, TSARIST

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Bartlett, Roger P. (1979). Human Capital: The Settlement of Foreigners in Russia, 1762-1804. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

  ERIC LOHR

  IMPERIAL RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

  Legend holds that the idea for the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) arose at a dinner party thrown by A. F. Middendorf in St. Petersburg in 1845. Middendorf had just returned from his famous expedition to Eastern Siberia. He, along with Fyodr Litke, Karl Ber, and Ferdinand Wrangel, conceived the society, which ultimately attracted seventeen charter members, including the most prominent Russian explorers, scientists, and public officials of their day. The goal was systematically to expand and quantify the understanding of their country, which was still relatively unknown. Geographical societies elsewhere in the world (England, France, Prussia, and so on) were mainly concerned with general geography, whereas homeland geography (domashnyaya geografiya) was for them secondary. The early founders of the RGS thus were leading proponents of the nationalist reform-minded movement that perfused Russia in the mid-1800s. The emphasis would be upon Russia’s special place in the world: its diversity of climates, languages, customs, peoples, and so forth.

  Although, early on, members wished to call it the “Russian Geographical-Statistical Society,” on August 18, 1845, Tsar Nicholas I declared that it would be named the “Russian Geographical Society”; this remained the official name for the next five years. In October 1845, the majority of the charter members held their first meeting and selected 51 active members from throughout Russia. After 1850 the society was renamed the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (Imperatorskoye russkoye geograficheskoye obshchestvo [IRGS]), an appellation that would persist until 1917.