For people related to sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, the name of Nikolai Danilevsky, a famous scientist in these areas, is not an empty phrase. This man has done a lot for the development of science and is worthy of knowing as many people as possible about his life, basic ideas and works.
Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky: the beginning of life
The future warrior of pan-Slavic ideology (the idea of ​​uniting all the Slavic countries, headed by Russia with the tsar on the throne; more on this later) was born in the current Lipetsk region, and then in the Oryol province, in one of the ancient sat down. This happy event for his family occurred on December 10, 1822 (according to the old style - November 28). The father of little Kolenka was a military man (later he even rose to the rank of general), his mother came from a long-standing and rather large noble family of small families; it was in Kolya’s maternal estate that he was lucky to be born.
As was customary in families of this kind, the son was given a good education, striving to develop him comprehensively, so that he would be savvy in many areas. It should be noted here that the young Danilevsky himself showed a certain interest in learning, demonstrating great abilities and talents from an early age. Therefore, it is not surprising that by the age of fourteen Nikolai Danilevsky knew three foreign languages ​​and one ancient one - Latin. He first gained knowledge at several private boarding schools, then at the Lyceum, and in 1836, just at the age of fourteen, he entered Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (and even personally saw Pushkin there, who attended the institution's anniversary evening).
Future life
If we talk in detail about the whole life of a scientist, not a whole article will be enough, so we will go over the biography of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky briefly, outlining the main milestones of his path.
After graduating from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (this happened four years later, in 1842), Danilevsky immediately had three university educations - philological, legal and historical-philosophical. However, Nikolai, eager for knowledge, was not satisfied with this, but went straight to Petersburg University - in pursuit of a natural education, he entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. After graduating from it, he became, in addition to everything else, a nerd and even intended to defend his dissertation, however, some events prevented this from happening (let’s not run ahead for now).
Doctrine of fourier
As a student, Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky became acquainted with the teachings of the French philosopher François Fourier and became very interested in him - so much that he preached among his fellow practitioners and like-minded people. In order to understand the reason for this interest, we briefly describe the essence of the Fourier system.
In short, Fourier was not just a socialist, but a utopian. In early childhood, he drew attention to the imperfection of the world and subsequently, becoming an adult, developed a model for an ideal future lifestyle - harmonious for all, fully revealing all human capabilities. As the son of a merchant, Fourier has been involved in the world of market relations since childhood. He was struck by the deception prevailing in these circles, how some are capable of profiting from others, and, having a natural tendency to hyperbolize, the emotionally receptive Fourier saw all human relations exclusively within the framework of sale. That is what he was going to change. The bourgeois system was to give way to a system of harmony in which labor associations would flourish - or, according to Fourier, the phalanx. For members of these phalanx Fourier, special places of rest, life and work (three in one) - phalanxes were provided. Fourier believed that if there is a sponsor who wants to build a phalanx at his own expense, then such a transformation can be carried out without changing the general political system. However, the rich altruist was never found during the life of Fourier himself, but there were a lot of Utopian followers who shared his views and propagated them to the masses. Among them was the then student Nikolai Danilevsky.
A little about Petrashevsky
Let's step back a little more from studying the biography of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky and talk about another person - Mikhail Petrashevsky, who is most directly connected with the scientist we are interested in.
Mikhail Vasilievich Petrashevsky was a rather famous and prominent figure of his time. He was only a year older than Danilevsky, but had a huge influence on the latter. Like Danilevsky, he studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, but graduated from it several years earlier. Then he was educated as a lawyer, worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a translator. Petrashevsky had a huge library, in which there were various kinds of books - including forbidden ones (for the revolutionary movement, for example). Petrashevsky organized at his home the so-called meeting of like-minded people, where he expressed his ideas regarding the liberation of the peasants together with the land and the democratization of the socio-political system of tsarist Russia.
It was Petrashevsky, who was an ardent supporter of the teachings of Fourier, who introduced him to his theory and "infected" Danilevsky with it, who came to the meeting of his circle. It was just a circle, whose members were called, by the name of their leader, Petrashevists. The circle ended its days in 1849 when Petrashevsky and several of his supporters were arrested for preparing a popular uprising, first sentenced to death, and then sent to penal servitude instead of execution.
Danilevsky and Petrashevists
As the biography of Nikolai Danilevsky says, briefly acquainted with the teachings of Fourier and being his true admirer, Nikolai Yakovlevich became very close on this basis with Mikhail Petrashevsky. And getting closer, he became, of course, an active member of his circle. At meetings of Petrashevists, as one can learn from the biography of Nikolai Danilevsky, he often made presentations on the teachings and ideas of Fourier, expressed his views on them (of course, positive).
When Petrashevists were arrested in 1849, Danilevsky was also on the list of detainees. At the same time, he was not even in Petersburg: just at that time he was heading for scientific practice in the Tula province. However, the practice was not destined to take place - the young man was arrested and escorted back to St. Petersburg.
Like many others, he was charged with supporting Petrashevsky and membership in his revolutionary group. While the trial was on, Danilevsky was in the cell. It took a hundred days for the investigation to conclude: Danilevsky’s interpretation of Fourier’s ideas was not revolutionary, therefore, he was not involved in organizing the rebellion. He was released from prison, however, imposing a ban on living in St. Petersburg. So, according to the biography of Nikolai Danilevsky, Vologda appeared in his life.
Life in the Volga region
Nikolai Yakovlevich did not stay in Vologda for long - he was soon transferred to Samara. However, this city played a significant role in the life of the philosopher. There are just two reasons why Vologda, according to the biography of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky, occupies a special place in his life. The first reason was Vera Beklemisheva.
Young people met in 1843. Vera, the widow of the hero of the Napoleonic war, was a friend of Nikolai Elena’s sister. Their friendship lasted six years, and right before the arrest, Nikolai confessed to Vera his feelings and received consent from her to marry him. Only three years later, Vera was able to come to Nikolai in Vologda, where they finally got married.
The second reason why Vologda is so important in the biography of Nikolai Danilevsky was the acquaintance with Pavel Mezhakov. This happened after Nikolay Yakovlevich was transferred to Samara for a short time (he had been there for less than a year). Mezhakov was the provincial leader of the nobility, became interested in the versatile savvy and erudition of Danilevsky, and began to invite him to visit him, in the village of Nikolskoye. In this village, in the Mezhakov estate, there was a huge park with a pond and rare tree species. All this extremely fascinated Danilevsky as a botanist, he gave Mezhakov a lot of valuable advice, sent seeds of trees and plants. So their friendship arose, which subsequently gave Danilevsky a new love. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
In 1853, Nikolai Yakovlevich was transferred to the office of Samara. He came to this Volga town with his young wife, not knowing that this visit would turn into misfortune. It was in Samara that Vera picked up cholera, which claimed her life. Family happiness lasted only nine months - and now he remained a widower.
It is not known how the life of a scientist and philosopher would have developed if he had stayed in Samara. However, let’s not forget about his diploma as a botanist - precisely because of his knowledge in the field of natural sciences, some time after Danilevsky’s arrival and Vera’s death, Nikolai Yakovlevich was sent on a fishing expedition by order of the government. He was given a definite task: to study the state of fishing on the Volga as a whole and fish stocks in particular. Several such expeditions were organized - and not only to the Volga, but also to the Caspian and White Seas, as well as to the north of the country. In total, Danilevsky participated in nine such sorties, during which he conducted a thorough study of the entire water composition of the European part of Russia, for which he was awarded: firstly, he received a gold medal from the Russian Geographical Society, and secondly, he became a member of the Council of the Ministry of State Property , where he subsequently participated in the development of laws on the control of Russian fisheries.
Subsequent life and final years
We will now briefly mention the further milestones in the biography of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky and, finally, turn to his ideas, teachings, and philosophical thoughts.
As mentioned above, in Vologda, Danilevsky met Pavel Mezhakov. He had a granddaughter, Olga, sixteen years younger than Danilevsky himself. This did not stop them from getting carried away with each other (of course, not immediately) - and nine years after the death of the first wife, Nikolai Yakovlevich married a second time. In the same year (1862), he first became a father: Olga gave him a daughter, Vera (in addition to her, Nikolai and Olga had five more children - Grigory, who died at the age of seven, Varvara, Nikolai, Sergey and Ivan).
In 1863, the Danilevsky family left for Crimea, lived in Miskhor, two years later acquired the estate in Mshatka. A philosopher and a scientist who died during his trip to Lake Goghcha (Sevan) are buried there. This happened on November 19, 1885. More than a hundred years later, in the spring of 1997, the foundation for the foundation of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was laid on the grave of Danilevsky.
The main ideas of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky
The biography of the scientist is described above, now nothing prevents us from moving on to the consideration of scientific, philosophical and other his views.
The main ideas of Nikolai Danilevsky are described in his main work - the work "Russia and Europe" (we will return to it later). He argues about the existence of a universal human civilization. His thoughts boil down to the fact that such has never been and cannot be in principle. Instead, there are separate cultural-historical types of civilizations. By and large, the theory of Nikolai Danilevsky is devoted to this very thing - these types.
So, the scientist believed that a single historical world process is all empty. Instead of universal human development, there are different cultural and historical types based on the biological model - as a botanist, Danilevsky obviously could not help but turn to this field of knowledge in any questions. He identified only eleven different cultural and historical types - we will separately consider them further. For now, we only say that the philosophy of Nikolai Danilevsky was based on pan-Slavism, therefore it is not surprising that he put the Slavic cultural-historical type of development that he himself singled out at the forefront. Before moving on, it is worth devoting a couple of lines to analyzing the question of what pan-Slavism is.
Panslavistic direction: what why why why
The idea that all Slavic peoples should unite at the political level on the basis of linguistic, cultural and ethnic community under the leadership of Russians, originated in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The reasons for his appearance are understandable - the unity of spirit and nationalism that grew and grew in ethnic groups, especially after the war with Napoleon. Historians, philologists, other scientists and intellectuals were actively engaged in folklore, searched for identical features in the past of peoples, sought to revive national cultures and languages. And the Croatian Yuri Krizhanich became famous for his attempt to create a completely new common language for all Slavic peoples. He also wrote a treatise entitled Politics, in which he was the first to declare that the Slavic peoples would free themselves from the foreign yoke and form their own united state.
Subsequently, the ideas of pan-Slavism acquired two directions: pro-Russian and anti-Russian. The first included those who believed that the Slavs should unite under the banners of Russia (as we recall, the main ideas of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky also consisted precisely in the dominance of the Russians over the others). To the second - those who were against such a thought. They, as a rule, were divided into two camps - some advocated universal Slavic equality (this trend would later be called neo-Slavism), others advocated the leadership of revived Poland. An interesting fact, by the way: the colors of the Russian flag are the colors of pan-Slavism, adopted back in 1848.
Danilevsky and the Slavs
Let us return again to the philosophical direction of Nikolai Danilevsky. So, he was a panslavist. What exactly, in his opinion, enabled the Slavs in general and the Russians in particular to rule the ball? In order to be able to talk about this, it is necessary to touch upon the main work of Nikolai Danilevsky — in any case, one of them — the work “Russia and Europe”.
Russia and Europe through the eyes of Danilevsky
Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky published his voluminous book "Russia and Europe" in 1869-1871 in the journal Zarya. It was completed a year earlier, and a scientist worked on it for as many as four years - since 1864. It is in this book that Danilevsky sets forth his concept of the existence of eleven cultural-historical types (we will touch on this issue in more detail), expresses his opinion on the generality of the historical process, and, finally, touches on the theme of Slavophilism and Westernism. We will talk about this further.
One of the key ideas of Nikolai Danilevsky in "Russia and Europe" (by the way, this is a shortened version of the title of the work, the full one is twice as long: "Russia and Europe: A Look at the Cultural and Political Relations of the Slavic World to the German-Romanesque") is the idea of that the two statehoods - European and Slavic - have different origins, and this is the basis for the assertion about the different essences of Europeans and Slavs, countries of Europe and countries of Slavic peoples. However, here lies the first discrepancy between the views of the Slavophiles (at least the majority) and Danilevsky himself: the latter especially singled out Russia, believing that it has its own, special way of development. By the way, in this opinion, there may be echoes of the position of François Fourier, who also held the view that the most powerful countries able to "absorb" rivals are Russia and France, and the first is probably even stronger.
Let us return to the analysis of the position of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky. In "Russia and Europe," he writes about the enormous role that all kinds of external factors play in the formation of the state - such as, for example, geographical location, large territorial spaces, different climatic conditions, differences in socio-economic development, and so on. Danilevsky believed that the most important goal of the Russian state was to protect the life, honor and freedom of the people, while he also believed that the factor of external danger was great in Russia, and therefore it needed strict power.
According to Danilevsky, this danger is not the same throughout the country (I mean here not Russia, but basically any country) - somewhere it is less, somewhere more; and where more, one centralized whole should be created in the political sense; in the same place, where it is less, it is possible to limit oneself to federated parts. As for Russia, it is because, as just mentioned, Nikolai Yakovlevich emphasized the significance of the external danger factor, centralization was vital for it. According to the scientist, only the representatives of the Rurikovich dynasty were able to maintain Russian statehood, and after the termination of their rule the state collapsed, but so far the instinct of national self-preservation, so characteristic of Russians, is alive, and the hope of a revival of statehood is alive.
What should be the power, according to Danilevsky? An absolute monarchy — that was what he believed was necessary for Russia. At the same time, it should be firmly connected with religious traditions and dogmas, since deviation from these norms entails confusion and schism. Neither the constitution nor the parliament are permissible in Russia - this is absurd; what is needed is a beneficial synthesis of protection and liberalism, a successful combination of reforms and a strong state policy. Danilevsky vehemently condemned the restriction of any freedom, especially because of the apprehension of the spread of the revolution. He bitterly noted the spread of Westernist ideas and the prohibition of Slavophil print media.
To retell all the views of Nikolai Danilevsky would be too long and, probably, reckless; at the end of our material, we present a series of the most interesting excerpts from the scientist's work being discussed now. Particularly keen on this topic would be useful to personally get acquainted with the work of Danilevsky - perhaps this is not the easiest thing to read, but it is very interesting. Let us just say, summing up the current section, that Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky believed in a good future for Russia, was optimistic, believed that the overthrow of the monarchy and a change in the political system of the country in Russia are impossible. Not the character of the Russian people, not the mentality — but for it to become “that”, years and even centuries are needed; the rare unrest, sometimes swaying the population, is, according to Danilevsky, with the desire to resemble Europe and the penetration into the masses of Westernist ideas.
On the cultural and historical types frankly
Let us now consider what, according to Nikolai Danilevsky, is the very notorious cultural-historical types. He described them, as we recall, in his work "Russia and Europe." According to the scientist, each nation or peoples similar in spirit and language has its own cultural, psychological, historical and other factors that determine the views and essence of this nation. The system of such views formed under the influence of the above factors is the cultural-historical type. Danilevsky also calls it "distinctive civilization."
As we mentioned above, in total Nikolai Yakovlevich identified eleven cultural-historical types. One of them is Slavic, which will later become a new Slavic civilization. Following him is the European, or Romano-Germanic type: it was his representatives, according to the convictions of the scientist, who developed natural science. The remaining nine cultural-historical types are: Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Assyro-Babylonian-Phoenician (another name is ancient Semitic or Chaldean), Arabian (and, on the contrary, New Semitic), Roman, Jewish and Greek. Of these, the last three types are of most interest, because thanks to the Jewish cultural-historical type, religion was developed, thanks to the Roman - law and, finally, thanks to the Greek - art.
All of the above types are living, that is, existing. Two more types, according to Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky, existed earlier, but "rested in the Bose", completing the path of their development. It is Peruvian and Mexican. In order for the cultural-historical type, each of which, by the way, has gone through three stages in its lifetime - growth, flowering and fruiting - to be born, live and function, two external factors are necessary: ​​linguistic affinity - once, and political independence - two.
Another interesting point regarding cultural-historical types is as follows. Danilevsky calls them "positive figures of mankind", highlighting along with them negative ones, as well as the so-called periphery of cultural-historical types. These are Finns and Celts. It is also an important fact that any original civilization is a closed system, that is, from one cultural-historical type to another, no traditions, knowledge, or anything else can be transmitted.
According to Nikolai Danilevsky, cultural activity has four foundations. This is religion, politics, culture and economics proper. Each of the cultural-historical types allocated to scientists is based on one of these foundations: some on just one, others on just four. Thus, we can talk about the existence of both monobasic, dibasic, tribasic, and tetrabasic cultural-historical types.
This is what the theory of cultural-historical types of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky looks like in a brief retelling. And now we turn to the presentation of the main works of the scientist.
List of Danilevsky’s works
It is probably wrong to call Danilevsky a prolific author — he has written not so much in his entire life. The main works of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky, in addition to "Russia and Europe", include the work "Darwinism. A critical study." It was started in 1879 and promised to be a qualitative study, however, the sudden death of the author prevented from bringing the plan to its logical conclusion. Only the first two volumes saw the light. The scientist's attitude to Darwin's theory was critical; he did not agree with it, believing that it simplifies the problem of the diversity of species and forms.
Also among the works of Nikolai Danilevsky, many works on geology, political economy, and national economy can be noted. He wrote, for example, about the climate of the Vologda province and about the movement of the Russian population, and published a collection of articles on various topics. But Nikolai Danilevsky's voluminous books, except the ones mentioned above, did not come out any more.
Curious excerpts
Below for a quick acquaintance are some of the most, in our opinion, interesting quotes from Nikolai Danilevsky from his work on Russia and Europe.
In the example of Little Russia, long separated from the rest of Russia and voluntarily connected with it after regaining its independence, we see evidence that not one Great Russian tribe, as some people think, is gifted with a deep political tact; and therefore, we can hope that, on occasion, the other Slavs will show the same meaning and tact, voluntarily recognizing the hegemony of Russia in the union after they regained their independence; for, in fact, the circumstances in which Little Russia was at the time of Khmelnitsky and the Western Slavs now are very similar. People’s enthusiasm, a favorable combination of circumstances, the genius of the leader advanced by the popular movement may perhaps give them independence, as under Khmelnitsky, but its preservation, and most importantly, the preservation of the general Slavic nature of life and culture, is impossible without close mutual connection with Russia. ..
... Defenders of nationalities are silent, as long as it is a matter of protecting the Russian nationality, which is utterly oppressed in the western provinces - just as accurately, however, as in the case of Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Serbs or Montenegrins ...
... So, for every Slav: Russian, Czech, Serb, Croat, Slovenian, Slovak, Bulgarian (I would like to add a Pole) - after God and His holy Church, the idea of ​​Slavism should be the highest idea, higher than science, higher freedom, above enlightenment, above all earthly good, for not one of them is unattainable for him without its realization ...
... Russia’s destiny is a happy destiny: to increase its power, it does not have to subjugate, oppress, like all representatives of the forces that have lived on our land: Macedonia, Rome, Arabs, Mongols, states of the German-Roman world, and liberate and restore ...
... The fight against the West is the only means of saving both for the cure of our Russian cultural ailments, and for the development of pan-Slavic sympathies, for their absorption of petty discord between different Slavic tribes and trends.
Contemporaries about Danilevsky
The follower of Nikolai Yakovlevich, his pupil and like-minded person, a faithful friend and comrade-in-arms N. Strakhov spoke of him like that (and I must say that many shared this opinion):
But, no matter how beautiful his labors, in himself there was even more good and light than in his labors. No one who knew the deceased could not but feel the purity of his soul, the directness and firmness of his character, the amazing strength and clarity of his mind. Having no pretensions, no desire to expose himself, he appeared everywhere, however, as a man in power, how soon it came to talk about what he knew and loved. His patriotism was limitless, but keen and incorruptible. There was no spot not only on his soul, but also on the very thoughts. His mind combined extreme theoretical power with the ease and accuracy of practical plans. In his legislative works and mental constructions, he never resorted to the help of other people's samples, he was completely original. For all those close to him, the irreplaceable treasures of the mind and soul descended into the grave.
Interesting Facts
- In Crimea, he was the director of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden.
- Such famous philosophers as Spengler and Toynbee, in many respects drew inspiration from the thoughts and works of Nikolai Yakovlevich.
- He was personally acquainted with Leo Tolstoy, who came to him at the Mshat estate and treated the philosopher with respect and sympathy.
- Streets in such cities as Yalta and Foros bear the name of Danilevsky, and one of the minor planets received the name of his estate - Mshatka.
- There is a prize named after Nikolai Yakovlevich in several areas at once: in the field of journalism, philosophy, natural sciences and art.
- In 2018, the world saw the collection of little-known journalistic works by Danilevsky.
Such is the information about the scientist and philosopher Nikolai Danilevsky and about his theories.