Slavophile Motifs in the Philosophy, Literature, and Art of Western and Southern Slavs When we say the word "Slavophilism," familiar names come to mind — Khomyakov, Kireevsky, Aksakov. We are accustomed to considering this phenomenon exclusively Russian, a product of the Moscow salons of the 1840s. But Slavophilism, or more broadly, the Slavic idea, was a much more extensive phenomenon. It encompassed all of Europe, from Prague to Belgrade, from Warsaw to Sofia. Western and southern Slavs living under the rule of the Austrian and Ottoman Empires sought in the Slavic idea not just cultural self-affirmation, but a means of survival, to preserve the language, faith, and national dignity. Their philosophy, literature, and art were imbued with motifs we today call Slavophile, but which sounded differently in each country, with a unique national accent. Slavophilism as a Pan-European Phenomenon Slavophilism was not an invention of Russian thinkers. Its roots date back to the Enlightenment and Romanticism, when throughout Europe there was a growing interest in national roots, folk poetry, and ancient history. The German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, one of the first theorists of the national spirit, saw the Slavs as a special people endowed with pacifism, musicality, and profound spirituality. These ideas were picked up by Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbian, and Croatian intellectuals, who sought in the Slavic community an alternative to German and Turkish pressure. In the 19th century, the self-assertion of Slavic Europe took place. The Slavic idea became the most important instrument of national revival for peoples who had lost statehood or were under foreign rule. However, it is important to understand that Slavophilism among western and southern Slavs was not a copy of Russian. It had its own characteristics, its accents, and its dramas. For example, Poles were never Russophiles in the sense that the Czechs or Bulgarians were. Their Slavophilism was deeply imb ... Read more