Ivan Aksakov and Napoleon III: Slavophile Interpretation of Bonapartism

Abstract

The article analyzes the ideas of one of the leaders of Slavophilism about the nature of Bonapartism. This issue has not yet been the subject of close research interest. In his articles of the 1860s, reflecting on the fate of Russia, I.Aksakov repeatedly touched on the topic of Napoleonic politics. From his point of view, Bonapartism is an organic product of Western history. Bonapartism was established thanks to the genius of one person, became possible due to revolutionary upheavals that shook the system of hereditary monarchies. It is expressed in the exaltation of a single person, acquiring the importance of the center of life of the whole country. This person can hold power with a series of innovations and victories; the measured rhythm of life destroys his power. In his own way, Aksakov poetized the personality of Napoleon I, saw him as an artist in history. Napoleon III, on the contrary, seemed to him a cunning, calculating politician. In the Slavophile coordinate system, Bonapartism is unacceptable for Russia, its path is different: the development of popular identity, the protection of Orthodox values, the unification of the Slavs. Aksakov predicted the fall of the Bonaparte dynasty, did not consider it durable. This forecast was justified, as well as the prediction of the Franco-Prussian war, which ended with the collapse of the Second Empire. In the confrontation between Russia and the West, Aksakov saw a religious background. He also spoke of the envy of the old world for the new one. At the same time, Aksakov declared the need for respect for Western peoples, the falsity of self-aggrandizement in the moral sphere: ethics presupposes humility, and not reliance on pride. In his understanding, the power of Russia in its primordial foundations was characterized with purity of faith, folk virtue, and community.