The Slavic question and discussions about the foundations of Russian foreign policy (1880s - early 90s)

The article examines the changes in the nature and main directions of Russian foreign policy in the 1880s. The changes under discussion were stimulated by the new situation on the international stage, first of all, the deterioration of relations with the Slavic states of the Balkans, which gained or consolidated their independence thanks to Russia following the war of 1877-1878. In this situation, some public figures and publicists declared the need to give the foreign policy of the state a purely pragmatic character, to abandon ideological motives - in particular, the notion that Russia is obliged to provide assistance to foreign “younger brothers”. However, such an attitude could not be established. Russia’s activities in the international arena still had ideological components. However, now, not foreign Slavs were considered as objects of patronage, but the peoples of more distant regions, in particular, the Ethiopians. The search for new “little brothers” became an important component of Russian foreign policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The consequences of such activities were ambiguous, but it cannot be denied that it was based on deeply rooted stereotypes of public consciousness and left a deep mark on the history of Russia.