Zemsky Sobor, the image of the “White Tsar” and Russia’s policy towards the remote peoples at the end of the 19th — early 20th centuries
Abstract
The article analyses the interrelation between the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th — early 20th centuries, changes in the attitude of Russian ruling circles and the conservative elite towards the remote peoples which were seen as the objects of Russia’s protection. The failure of the plans to convene the national representative body (Zemsky Sobor) proposed by N. P. Ignat’ev and I. S. Aksakov in 1882 was a symptom of a serious shift in this sphere. From now on, the foreign peoples who possessed the well-developed national consciousness and struggled to achieve the political autonomy or independence were not treated as the main object of Russia’s patronage. Instead, the main attention was paid to the “peopleschildren” which struggled for physical survival, for maintaining the basic elements of their ethno-cultural distinctiveness. An important place among these peoples occupied the Orthodox Arabs of Palestine and Syria where activities of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society were concentrated. The Arabs’ patriarchal way of life, their simplicity and religiosity attracted attention of Russian conservatives, as did their veneration of the “White Tsar”, the ruler of Russia and protector of the oppressed ethnic groups across the world. In the same way, the Russian conservatives perceived other remote peoples, such as Ethiopians, Assyrians, and various ethnic groups of the Far East. All these peoples applied to the “Empire of Tsars” for the help which was to strengthen the notion of Russia’s special mission in the international stage. Russia’s defeat in the war with Japan and the revolution of 1905–1907 struck a serious blow to these views and undermined the international authority and infl uence of the empire.
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