Pobedonostsev's Conception of the Good Society: An Analysis of His Thought After 1880

Abstract

Established societies as well as revolutionary organizations and movements have always developed, though often only obscurely, a vision of an ideal society, generally located in the future although often also in the romantic past. For established communities, the goal sought by the society has had tremendous significance because faith in the desirability of the end envisioned has been one of the chief binding forces. Perhaps of even greater importance has been the dynamic stimulus the belief in an ideal society has given to rising revolutionary movements, such as those which have led to the great upheavals of history. The ultimate and ideal goal is particularly significant during times of crisis, when the loyalties of men are shaken and when frequently the factors most decisive in determining a citizen's position are his acceptance of and confidence in the final aims of the group to which he belongs. As an eminent English dramatist once said, a map of the world which does not include the ideal society has little interest for man, for it is upon the shores of such societies that man is always landing.A study of a conception of the good society is not only an analysis of a source of cohesion and power; it can also shed great illumination upon an entire system of thought. The examination of a philosophy from this angle, that of the ultimate, ideal aims to be achieved, is particularly revealing in the case of Konstantine Petrovich Pobedonostsev, who was lay administrator of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1880 until October, 1905, and was one of the most prominent statesmen in Russia during the last third of the nineteenth century. During the 1880's in particular, he was as powerful in determining the direction of Russian domestic policy as Bismarck was for three decades in guiding the German state.