Paradoxes of the political romanticism of Kireevsky I.V.: between an universal monarchy and a national state

Abstract

The article deals with the political views of Ivan Vasilievich Kireevsky in connection with the history of censorship prohibition of the journal “European” published by him. The text of the report due to which the journal was closed is analyzed. Special attention is paid to the idea of “merging minds together”, interpreted in the text of the denunciation as the basis of Republican beliefs. The author reconstructs Kireevsky's political views in the context of the influence of German romantic ideas on Russian social thought in the first half of the XIX century. The author clarifies Kireevsky's attitude to the ideals of the Great French Revolution and concludes that his views are opposed to the radical vector of the European Enlightenment as a whole. The author demonstrates the historical context in which the views of young Kireevsky are formed, and focuses on the contrast between the Enlightenment and the Romanticism era, which is associated in Russia with the counter-enlightenment reaction of the times of the Holy Union. The author reconstructs Kireevsky's religious and philosophical views, which, following V.S. Solovyov, are characterized as philosophical, romantic Christianity. Kireevsky's ideas are compared with those of representatives of other trends of Russian social thought that were influenced by German Romanticism − theorists of official conservatism, as well as P.Ya. Chaadaev. Their conceptual differences in understanding the relationship between “world” and “national” are revealed. The author demonstrates Kireevsky's socio-political concept, in which the “organic” development of people's life is contrasted with the “violent” establishment of social institutions. It is concluded that the primacy of spiritual unity over political aspirations in Kireevsky's worldview leads him away from both republican beliefs and official imperial conservatism.