International Scientific Conference 'After Napoleon: Intellectual Disputes about Russia and Europe'
On May 17-18, 2024, the International Laboratory for the Study of Russian and European Intellectual Dialogue holds an international scientific conference.
The organizers of the conference propose to discuss an urgent topic that highlights the phenomenon of 'the beginning of the century' recurring for the third century (the big war with consequences), which brings change in the general order of the world on the European continent.
In 1815 the Congress of Vienna renewed Europe after Napoleon and formed the military-political 'Holy Alliance' of Russia, Austria, Prussia, France and other European monarchies. The Russian Empire entered Europe as the winner, playing the 'first violin' in the 'orchestra' of European politics. The idea of a union based on Christian principles of peace belonged to Alexander I. However, the political contacts of the allied monarchies could not slow down the development of bourgeois Europe. After Napoleon, there spread liberal ideas, as did the struggle for nation-states, which however gained the status of a political force later.
The beginning of the century marked Russia's participation in the coalition campaigns against Napoleon and M. M. Speransky's proposals of state reforms. Those reforms changed of the legislative and executive branches of the Senate and transformed the management of the Synod. There was created a three-stage system of spiritual education. They founded Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, adopted the University Charter, expanded the ruling class and carried out other reforms. The transformations revived the human freedom discussion. The most important event in the intellectual life of Russia was the works of N. M. Karamzin, who began with the creation of the journal 'Vestnik Evropy' in 1802, and discovered Russia 'like Columbus America' for everyone who could read his 'History of the Russian State'.
The gradual nature of the reforms was unpredictable in its consequences. In the 1820s, secret societies of the nobility grew stronger, both in the capital and in the south of the empire, with a variety of ideas for seizing power and transforming the state. European examples worked: General Riego in the revolutionary events in Spain; Italian carbonari, etc. The consequences of the December mutiny on Senate Square in 1825 and the execution of five Decembrists became for many years an internal source of disputes among intellectuals and the reactionary nature of the Nikolay I regime.
Another consequence of the Napoleonic Wars was the Polish Uprising of 1830-31 in Russia, its resonance both outside, in Europe, and inside ('To the Slanderers of Russia' by Pushkin). In 1836, the poet responded to the publication of the sharply critical 'Philosophical Letter' by P. Ya. Chaadaev in the 'Telescope' with a personal letter about the historical significance of Russia in the destinies of Europe.
By the 40s, Russian intellectuals were rigidly divided into parties of the Slavophiles and the Westernizers, assessing Russia in historical, cultural and social contexts, thereby avoiding discussion of political reforms in the empire of the Nicholas era. Intellectual thought developed in jounals, salons and circles. In 1849, participants in meetings with M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky, who studied Fourier, Saint-Simon, were sentenced to death. Among them was F. M. Dostoevsky. On the scaffold, the death penalty was replaced by hard labor. The political critic of the empire was the Marquis A. de Custine in the book 'La Russie en 1839', read by Russian intellectuals in French. The era ended with the Crimean War.
Schedule_in Russian (PDF, 874 Kb).
Time: May 17-18, 2024, 09:50 (Moscow time).
Location: Moscow, Staraya Basmannaya str., 21/4, building 1, room. 204 and room A217 / online.
The language of the event is Russian.