Abstract
Anyhistorical inquiry into nations and states in the nineteenth century is forcedto interact with the teleological assumption that modern states had to benation states. Any empire is considered ipso facto ‘backwards’ and ‘ahistorical’. Thisarticle posits that this teleological assumption is itself a product ofnineteenth century, specifically of Hegel’s Philosophy of History. This article seeks to show how in an attempt to resolve the exclusion of the Russian Empire from Western philosophy of history, a group of Russian Pan-Slavist intellectuals, associated with the Slavic Benevolent Committee, developed an alternative, Slav philosophy of history. According tothis philosophy, the Russian Empire was not simply included into history but wasidentified as the harbinger of its completion, thus being reconceptualised asmodern. In order to reconstruct the Slav philosophy of history, I focus on the intellectualactivity of the Slavic Benevolent Committee, 1858-1878, with an in-depthanalysis of two publications: Cyrillo-MethodianAlmanac (1865) andthe first volume of the History of the Moscow Slavic Benevolent Committee (1871).Finally, I look at the ways in which the Moscow Ethnographic Exhibition 1867 wasdesigned to reflect the Slav philosophy of history.@font-face{font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face{font-family:DengXian;panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;mso-font-alt:等线;mso-font-charset:134;mso-generic-font-family:auto;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-1610612033 953122042 22 0 262159 0;}@font-face{font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:swiss;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}@font-face{font-family:"\@DengXian";panose-1:2 1 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 1;mso-font-charset:134;mso-generic-font-family:auto;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-1610612033 953122042 22 0 262159 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";margin:0cm;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:DengXian;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:DengXian;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}