№ 5 - 2005
Koval Ye.I., Nazukina M.V.
From the Monarchist Idea to the Conservative One: F.R.Chвteaubriand and the Development of Russian Political Thought in the First Half of the 19th Century

The gist of the article, by its immediate subject, comes to comparative analysis of ideological-political views of F.R.Chвteaubriand and of three Russian protoconservatives – N.M.Karamzin, S.S.Uvarov and A.S.Khomyakov. After adducing quite a few testimonies to all the four thinkers’ having substantially advanced toward conservatism in its modern understanding, the authors yet cogently demonstrate that neither Chвteaubriand, nor the Russian thinkers holding the same views, ever proved able to go the whole length of it; so, they remained in the first place monarchists. According to the authors’ conclusion, such run of things was preconditioned by the fact that the systems of views of these forerunners of conservatism were not so much the result of conscious choice, as the product of emotional reaction to the revolutionary events in France.