Treatment of people

The official ideology, in its aspirations to keep the people away from any attempt at change, in 1832, through the mouth of Count Uvarov, proclaimed its well-known triune formula “Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality”. When it came to nationality, this meant patriarchalism, family relations between the landowner and the peasants, sons love and gratitude to the king for caring for the people, etc. According to this ideology, serfdom appears as the most adequate form of government for the people lords ”.
Slavophiles only at first glance adhered to the official formula of nationality. In fact, their understanding of nationality differed from the Uvarov interpretation, since they proceeded from the need to abolish serfdom. The concept of nationality Slavophiles sought to free from distortion of state absolutism. Moreover, the very power for them appeared as a sin, and the power of the state as evil. It is known that Aksakov defended the monarchy on the grounds that it is better for one person to be tainted by power than the whole nation. According to the Slavophiles, the Russian people are anti-state and want to be free from statehood. One can only agree with Berdyaev, who wrote: “The Slavophiles believed in the people, in the people's truth and the people for them were, first of all, the peasants who kept the Orthodox faith and national way of life ... They were determined opponents of the Roman right to property ... Despite the conservative element of their worldview, they recognized the principle of the rule of the people. ”
Slavophiles interpreted the people as obedient, politically passive, committed to the old way of their life. K. Aksakov believed that the absence of an external legal order had a positive side, because it allowed the people to go by the “inner truth”, therefore, the relationship between the people and the State in Russia was based on mutual trust, because the people were not interested in power. But, he said, we can be told that either the people or the government can change each other, that guarantees are needed. To which he replied: “No guarantees are needed. Warranties are evil. Where she is needed, there is no good for us. ” For Aksakov, the Russian people are God's chosen, anti-revolutionary, apolitical. “The Russian people are non-state people, i.e., not aspiring to state power, not wanting political rights for themselves, not having in themselves even the germ of lust for power.”
The public is the highest circles of society, speaking French, dancing mazurka and polka, dressing up in a German dress. Whereas the people "draws life from their native source," has its own Russian customs. The public despises the people, the people forgive the public. "The public is perishable, the people are eternal." This is close to the notion of the mob of Pushkin, who understood by this word not the people, but the uneducated nobility, an uncivilized bureaucracy and who despised the mob for it.
Slavophiles idealize Russian antiquity, they idealize and the people with their patriarchal humility and religiosity. The people spoke in their interpretation as a loyal and humble mass. All this took place in real life and one can hardly blame Slavophiles for this. Far from the Slavophil positions, Chaadaev spoke of the potential non-manifestation of the Russian people. In “The Apology of a Madman,” he writes that the preservation of non-prime forces among the Russian people determines the possibility of their messianic role in history. Berdyaev will pay particular attention to this position of Chaadaev, considering it to be fundamental for Russian self-consciousness. Chaadayev’s thought that the Russian people did not create anything great in history is a thing of the past, but it is this fact that can give hope and faith in the future of the Russian people, in its ability to accomplish a great mission.
Further on, the tradition of Slavophilism was developed by Danilevsky, who, like Aksakov, considered that the Russian people are non-political, does not seek power, that the upheavals in the life of the Russian people are accomplished “through internal detachment” from the old forms, then “internal rebirth”, during which the new ideal being implemented. Coups appear as a purely psychological process that occurs within the framework of popular morality, without the manifestation of external struggle.