Differences between catholicism and ortodoxy in concepts of classical and late russian slavophiles (on the example of Ivan Kireyevsky’s and Nikolay Danilevsky’s texts)

Abstract

One of  the  three main concepts of  the  Russian Slavophiles was to  oppose Russia and  Europe, of  course, in  favor of  the  Russia. “Europe” in  the  Slavophile concepts became a carrier of negative qualities and example of “corruption of  morals”, in  contrast to  Orthodox Russia, which draws from the  heritage of the Orthodox faith. The subject of the comparison of Europe and Russia were almost all areas of  political and  social life. For obvious reasons, Slavophiles also pointed to  religious differences, demonstrating the  superiority of “Orthodox” Russia over the “Catholic” or “Protestant „Europe. In the course of its development Slavophile thought, growing in Russia since the mid-20s until the 60s and 70s the nineteenth century, was undergone some evolution. This article is intended to demonstrate the difference between the perception of religious differences between Russia and Europe by so-called “classic Slavophiles” and in the late Slavophiles. The subject of comparison will be here on the one hand the views of the creator of the foundations of the lavophile ideology, Ivan Kireyevsky, and the ideas of the late Slavophile theoretician, Nikolay Danilevsky.