Sergey Semyonovich Uvarov: life. Works. Worldview

The article Investigates the evolution of religious and philosophical views of Count Sergey Semyonovich Uvarov (1786-1855), an outstanding statesman, scholar, researcher of Classical Antiquity, philologist, historian, philosopher, Minister of Education of the Russian Empire (1833-1849), and President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1818-1855). It shows that the thinker's creative path was directed at all Its stages along the lines of the conservative worldview. As early as In the 1810-s Uvarov became convinced that In Europe the revolution sought to destroy culture, enlightenment and the “national spirit,” while Russia could develop without revolutionary upheavals, relying on Its spiritual, political and national traditions. Even In his early works, written under the Influence of romantic Orientalism, he appeared as a Christian educator, geo-politician and a forerunner of the Eurasianism movement, a critic of the philosophy of the French Enlightenment and a defender of Christian culture and religion. As a Christian philosopher, Count Sergey Uvarov associated “true freedom” with the spiritual and moral life of the people, sought to make the political situation better through moral Improvement, and relied on the dependence of civil liberation from spiritual freedom. Unlike many highest officials of the Nicholas Age, who linked a revolutionary threat with the development of education, S. Uvarov, on the contrary, considered It as the most effective means of strengthening Russian statehood.