A. S. Khomyakov as an Anglophile: The Paradox of a Westerner in the Heart of Slavophilism Introduction: England as a Philosophical Counterbalance Alexey Stepanovich Khomyakov (1804-1860) is a central figure of early Slavophilism, whose teachings are associated with a critique of Western rationalism and the affirmation of the uniqueness of Russian Orthodox communal life. However, his personality and intellectual path contain a deep paradox: Khomyakov was a passionate Anglophile. His fascination with England was not superficial or everyday but deeply philosophical and religious. For him, England did not represent the “West” in general (which he identified with the rationalist, depersonalized Romano-Germanic world), but a special, conservatively organic alternative to revolutionary France and metaphysical Germany. His Anglophilia was an important component in constructing his own Slavophile system. Khomyakov’s England: The Land of “Living Tradition” and “Organic Conservatism” Unlike many of his contemporaries who saw England as the birthplace of parliamentarism and bourgeois progress, Khomyakov valued something else in it: Unwritten constitution and the supremacy of custom (Common Law): He admired that English statehood grew not from abstract theories (like the French), but from historical tradition, from the organic development of ancient institutions. This resonated with his idea that the true life of a people is rooted in unwritten, irrational foundations. “Burkean conservatism” as an antithesis to revolution: Edmund Burke’s philosophy, his critique of the French Revolution in the name of historical continuity and “prejudices,” was extremely close to Khomyakov. In England, he saw the realization of Burke’s ideal — a society developing through gradual reform rather than violent rupture. Religious freethinker and connoisseur of English theology: Khomyakov, a profound Orthodox theologian, was well versed not only in Anglicanism but also in the history of English religi ... Read more