INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ‘ENEMIES’ AS MEANS OF CONSOLIDATING RUSSIANS IN STRUGGLE FOR STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to study the role of the ‘threat of enemies’ factor as certain technologies in the politics of Russian elites, in order to feed stable sentiments of ‘blind patriotism’ in the society, and the use of the latter in geopolitical claims to the status of a ‘great power’. Scientific novelty: based on documentary sources it is found out that introducing manipulative technologies to influence the consciousness of Russians through periodicals and literature, dates back to the middle of the 19th century, and the main incentive for the ‘patriotic rallying’ of all strata of Russian society for the full approval of the ‘native government’ policy had become the artificial formation of the notion about ‘life danger’ due to the ‘threat of enemies’. Conclusions. Experience of the history of the first half – the middle of the 19th century shows (the same happened in the middle – the second half of the 20th century) that significant military victories of the Russians each time prompted them to claim global geopolitical influence; and vice versa, when the precedent of a significant military defeat was set, their intellectual elite resorted to self-exposure of shameful national traits and the confession of their imperialistic aspirations. Despite the persistent social and political feature of the Russian reality – the excessive level of power centralization – during periods of softening of totalitarian pressure and repressive massacres, the need to maintain the public sentiment of ‘unity and trust’ between the ruling power and the people always remained unchanged. It was just in the middle of the 19th century, during the weakening of the autocracy’s authority (as a result of the Crimean War), that the technology of influencing the Russian educated public was invented with the establishment of a system of so-called ‘trusted’ periodicals. And with the efforts of the latter, the desired goal was achieved – shifting the public’s attention from the internal problems of the empire’s system to the problems of ‘perceived external threats.’ Organized in periodicals, the campaign of a manipulatively created image of ‘enemies threatening the fatherland’ quickly removed all claims expressed to the imperial authorities and formed the atmosphere of ‘patriotic’ readiness to unite with the same authorities in the fight against ‘declared enemies’. Permanently cultivated convictions that the empire and the fatherland were identical concepts also served as an additional catalyst for arousing mass sentiments of ‘blind patriotism’ among Russians. Therefore, all the conquests of the Empire were inseparable components of the ‘Russian national body’, and their defense in the struggle was the ‘holy’ duty of every ‘patriot’.