Russian Messianism: Third Rome, Holy Revolution, Communism and After (Routledge Advances in European Politics)

261 Pages·2000·1.49 MB·English

by  Peter Duncan

Russian Messianism
Russian messianism is the view that the Russian people are the chosen people.
This idea has preoccupied some of the most well-known Russian writers for
centuries: through suffering and adherence to Orthodox Christianity, the Russian
people will redeem the errors of humanity. When the USSR collapsed in 1991,
many in the West expected a new era of freedom to dawn, whereas in reality
most Russians are nostalgic for the Soviet period and many blame the USA for
their present problems.
This is the first book in English for half a century to analyse the complexities
of Russian messianism as a whole and its interaction with communism. The book
spans Russian history, from the claim of the medieval monk Filofei that Moscow
was the Third Rome to Lenin’s idea that Western capitalism would collapse and
Russia could show the way out of crisis, right up to the present day. Peter
Duncan considers the Orthodox roots of messianism and also focuses on
Russia’s geopolitical experience and situation to explain its endurance. This
unique work will be of great interest to those engaged in politics and Russian
studies, as well as to professionals dealing with Russia.
Peter J.S.Duncan is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Russian Politics and
Society at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College
London. He is the author of The Soviet Union and India, and co-author of The
Road to Post-Communism: Independent Political Movements in the Soviet Union,
1985–1991.
Routledge Advances in European Politics
1 Russian Messianism: Third Rome, Revolution, Communism and After
Peter J.S.Duncan
2 European Integration and the Postmodern Condition Peter van Ham
Russian Messianism
Third Rome, revolution, Communism
and after
Peter J.S.Duncan
London and New York
First published 2000
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Transferred to Digital Printing 2002
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2000 Peter J.S.Duncan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Duncan, Peter J.S.
Russian messianism: third Rome, revolution, communism and after/
Peter J.S.Duncan.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Russia—History—Philosophy. 2. Soviet Union—History—Philosophy.
3. Russia (Federation)—History—Philosophy. 1. Title.
DK49 .D86 2000
947'.001–dc21 99–059925
ISBN 0-203-44235-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-75059-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-15205-4 (Print Edition)
To my mother, Lucy Duncan, and the memory of my
father, Charles Stuart Duncan
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of abbreviations x
Note on transliteration and dates xiv
Introduction 1
1 The origins of Russian messianism 6
Messianism 6
Jewish messianism 7
Christian messianism 9
Messianism in the West 9
Moscow, the Third Rome 11
Church and State in Muscovy and eighteenth-century Russia 12
Holy Russia 14
National consciousness 16
2 The Slavophils and Russian messianism under Nicholas I 18
Two ideologies 18
Influences on official narodnost’ and Slavophilism: Chaadaev 19
Pushkin and Gogol 21
Slavophilism and the Slavophils 22
Khomiakov 22
Ivan Kireevsky 24
Konstantin Aksakov 24
Pan-Slavism 25
Tolerance and repression 27
vii
Russian messianism and the Crimean War 28
3 Pro-Tsarist forms of Russian messianism: Pan-Slavism, 30
Dostoevsky and Solovyov
From Slavophilism to pan-Slavism 30
Slavophilism and pochvennichestvo 32
Pan-Slavism, 1867–78: Danilevsky 32
Dostoevsky 34
Alexander III, Nicholas II and the Jews 42
Leontev 42
Fyodorov 43
Vladimir Solovyov 44
Vekhi 46
4 Messianism and revolution: from Herzen to Stalin 48
Herzen 48
Marxist messianism 49
Marxism in Russia 51
The October Revolution and Russian messianism 52
Berdiaev’s view of Russian Communism 55
Russian identity under Lenin and Stalin 56
The Russian Orthodox Church and Russian messianism under Lenin and 58
Stalin
Stalinism and Russian messianism: an appraisal 60
5 De-Stalinization and the growth of Russian national 62
consciousness: the Khrushchev era
Literature and Russian national consciousness: early village prose, 62
Solzhenitsyn and Novyi mir
Unofficial political activity 64
The anti-religious campaign and the Russian Orthodox Church 65
6 The Brezhnev era: cultural Russian nationalism 68
Cultural Russian nationalism, 1964–70: Molodaia gvardiia and its critics 69
Russian nationalism in literature and art, 1970–81 75
viii
Russian nationalism in history, 1970–81: Likhachev, the 77
gosudarstvenniki and Kulikovo
7 The Brezhnev era: dissident Russian messianism 82
The All-Russian Social-Christian Union for the Emancipation of the 82
People (VSKhSON)
Dissent within the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian messianism 84
“Slovo natsii” 88
Veche 89
Solzhenitsyn and Russian messianism: Letter to the Soviet Leaders and 96
From under the Rubble
Gennady Shimanov 1 00
Dimitry Dudko, the Christian Seminar and the Christian Committee 1 04
8 Andropov and Chernenko against Russian nationalism 1 10
The dissidents 1 10
The literary struggle 1 11
Ideology and the leadership 1 12
9 Gorbachev and the end of empire 1 15
The beginnings of glasnost’ 1 16
The growth of nationality tensions 1 22
The final struggle 1 26
1 Post-Soviet Russia: the victories and defeat of Gennady Ziuganov 1 30
0
The failure of the reformers 1 30
The Russian idea and the opposition 1 33
Conclusion 1 41
Notes 1 49
Bibliography 1 89
Index 2 32
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to the staff and associates of the Institute of Soviet and East
European Studies at the University of Glasgow and the School of Slavonic and East
European Studies (SSEES), University College London, for discussion and
comment on this work over a long period. This is based on a University of
Glasgow PhD thesis supervised by Stephen White, who showed remarkable
patience and consistently offered me advice and encouragement, without which I
should have been unable to finish. My thanks are due to him and to Jack Miller,
Jimmy White and the late Alec Nove and Rene Beermann. I have a particular
debt to Martin Dewhirst for passing on to me the fruits of his encyclopaedic
knowledge of Russian intellectual life and sending me much valuable material.
At SSEES Geoffrey Hosking inspired me with ideas to convert a dusty thesis
into a book. Members of the SSEES Post-Soviet Press Study Group, particularly
Robert Service and Jonathan Aves, kept me up-to-date with current
developments. SSEES research students, including Simon Cosgrove, Maria Lenn
and Tim Spence, contributed in different ways. Colleagues at SSEES were good
enough to allow me study leave. I had the benefit of discussions with Peter
Reddaway, Dimitry Pospielovsky, John Dunlop, Gennady Shimanov, Roy
Medvedev, Zhores Medvedev, Leonid Borodin, Viktor Aksiuchits, Valery
Solovei, Vadim Kozhinov and Stanislav Kuniaev and the late Anatoly Levitin-
Krasnov and Mikhail Agursky. Staff of the SSEES Library, Keston Institute, the
RFE/RL Research Institute, and the Institutes of Russian History and of
Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences gave me their help. I
appreciate the stimulation I received from colleagues at the University College
of Wales, Aberystwyth and the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Responsibility for all errors of fact and judgement is entirely my own.
Anna Dyer, Lesley Pitman and Natasha Levina aided me in many ways.
Audrey Orzechowska kindly typed part of the first draft. I am grateful for an
award from the then Social Science Research Council, and for a University of
Glasgow studentship. My parents, Lucy Duncan and the late Charles Duncan,
gave me much material and intellectual support.