«Неудержимо сердце обливается кровью, когда читаешь сообщение местного жителя из Белоруссии…»: Западная Русь в восприятии консервативной интеллигенции (на примере публицистики по польскому вопросу В.В. Розанова)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of V.V. Rozanov’s views on the situation in the western borderlands of the empire – Western Russia. Those views were expressed in his publicism on the Polish issue. As sources of information the author uses the articles published in the period of the publicist’s active creative work in 1890s–1914. In his articles Rozanov promptly responded to all current events in the region. His debut in covering that subject matter can be traced to the publication of his reflections regarding the personality of M.N. Muravyev-Vilensky and the latter’s contribution to the «Russian Case» in Western Russia (informational cause was the opening of the monument to him in Vilna). Also he was interested in the following subjects of Western Russia problematic: the problem of introducing local government in Belarusian provinces; the outbreak of religious violence between Catholics and Orthodox Christians in Belarus and Kholmshchina in 1905–1907; the problem of the compliance of the government policy in the Western provinces with the true national goals. In his articles Rozanov repeatedly drew the authorities’ and society’s attention to the danger of Polish nationalism and to the danger of the repeated attempts to assimilate the Russians (Belarusians and Ukrainians) of the Western region. He never stopped worrying about the situation with the Orthodox Christians. The inconsistency of judgments and views inherent to Rozanov was vividly demonstrated in his publications devoted to that subject.