A newspaper «Kievlyanin» and forward-looking nationalists, 1915-1917

In spite of the evident progress in the study of Russian conservatism in the beginning of the XXth century, which was achieved during the last 20 years, ideology and political activity of the Russian nationalists and the role of the forward-looking nationalists in the activity of Progressive Block didn't become the object of detailed research. During a long period of time in historiography the Russian nationalists were considered to be a part of conservative forces, because researchers didn't want to puzzle out their political aspirations. The main reason of this is the shortage of historiographical sources. Besides several memoires of the participants of the events (Shulgin, Milukov, Gurko and others) the shorthand reports from the meetings of the Committee of Progressive Block and Duma played an important role. But the main source for the research becomes «Kievlyanin», «a literary and political newspaper of the West region». Officially this newspaper wasn't the print of any party or faction, but its main journalists were listed in Kiev club of Russian nationalists. The main journalists of «Kievlyanin» were Savenko and Shulgin, the leaders of forward-looking nationalists. Their articles help us to understand the political interests and main views of the whole party, areas of the struggle with the right political forces and slow convergence with the forward-looking nationalists with the kadets. These processes could be most vividly seen during the First World War. Besides the records of the State Duma «Kievlyanin» is the only informative source to analyze the faction of forward-looking nationalists.