New research on the history of russian conservatism

Abstract

The author of the review evaluates Alexander Kotov’s book “Nestlings of Katkov’s Nest” devoted to the participation of Mikhail Katkov and four journalists of his circle in Russian social and political life of the second half of the XIX and the early XX centuries. Kotov’s research starts with a brief essay about Katkov where the author rejects Katkov’s characteristics as a Liberal Conservative or a Civil / Political Nationalist and describes him and his “nestlings” as Bureaucratic Nationalists. The biggest and main chapter in the book is devoted to Professor Lyubimov and his participation in social and political struggle, as well as to his dramatic personal fate. Lyubimov’s projects of changes in Russian universities were not just “counter-reformist” but partly are urgent nowadays. Two other “Katkovists”, Tsion and Tatishchev, outstanding adventurers rather than political thinkers, are represented as scandalous figures and opposed to Lyubimov and the last hero of Kotov’s book – a serious Panslavist journalist Shchebalskiy. In general Kotov raised important historical questions on the character of “Katkovism” (quite eclectic movement in Russian social and political thought, indeed) and the reasons of its correspondence to the requests and mood of Russian society in the 1860s – 1890s.