N. Ya. Danilevsky in national conservative discourse

The nineteenth century is rightly considered the “golden” century of Russian culture. Russia’s achievements in literature and music have received worldwide recognition. At the same time, it is generally believed that Russian philosophy did not reach the European level during this period. However, in such a specific field of thought as historiosophy, Russia in the person of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky was half a century ahead of the search for Western thought. A world-class scientist, he was not appreciated by most of his contemporaries, and only after the resounding success of Oswald Spengler’s book “The Decline of Europe” (1918), Danilevsky’s name was firmly rooted in the world academic tradition. At the same time, Danilevsky’s main historiosophical work “Russia and Europe: A Look at the Cultural and Political Relations of the Slavic World to the Germanic-Romance” (1869) almost immediately after publication, received the status of a canonical text of Russian soil science. In my opinion, Danilevsky’s book retains this quality in our time. Thus, the concept of Danilevsky is one of the most important components of the national intellectual tradition. In turn, the study, or rather comprehension, of this tradition is not only the task of academic science, but also of citizens who feel it to be their own.