Russian Pan-Slavism and its Concept of Europe

L’Europa dei nazionalisti: Prospettive storiche a cura di Francesco Berti, Filippo Focardi, Valentine Lomellini, Publisher: FrancoAngeli, Milano , 2020 The Pan-Slavic doctrine is probably the earliest representative of Louis Snyder’s “macro-nationalism” (pan-movements), which go beyond the adoration of only one political nation. As a matter of fact, Pan-Slavism originated in Western Balkans among Catholic religious visionaries. Later, however, the Pan-Slav idea was adopted by Russian nationalists who saw the light of a political and cultural mission in Eastern Europe. The early stage of the doctrine, represented by Mikhail Pogodin, although aiming at the unification of all Slavs at the expense of Prussia and the Austrian Empire, comprehended Russia as one of the leading European and Christian political actors. The mature form of Russian Pan-Slavism, represented by such personalities as Nikolai Danilevsky, Ivan Aksakov or Rostislav Fadeev opposed the idea of Slavdom to Europe and based the multicivilizational paradigm of international politics on rough pre-realistic principles