L' européanisme russe sous le prisme de l’instruction publique dans la Russie des XVIIIe-XIXe siècles

Abstract

From the 16th to the 17th centuries, modern European political philosophy put the State at the center of its investigations. The key question raised in several works of the philosophers of modern Times up til the 18th century was the question about the sovereignty of the State. The 18th century became a starting point in the philosophical tradition where the State was often considered from the point of view of its providential role or from the point of view of the general power which it represents. The novelty of the 18th century consisted in the more definite pronunciation of the liberal requirement of the rational limitation of power of State by individual liberty. It is a question of putting the emphasis on human rights, or natural rights. This evolution of political ideas in Europe considerably influenced the history of Russia which during the 18th century was undergoing a process political and cultural Europeanization. In both areas, the expansion of European ideas and values into Russia entrained conflicts which were visible, on the one hand, in the opposition to the imperial ambitions of the Russian State and in the waxing of nationalism in the XIX century; and, on the other hand, in the opposition to the principle of universalism and to nationalism as ethical norms, mostly because of cultural difference between Europe and Russia. This article examines the reflections of the Russian authors of the 18th and 19th centuries on the constitution of the best political regime and on its foundations, among which public education was considered as one of most important. Debates on the purposes of national public education illustrate the importance of education for the creation of a new type of person and of the way he should be fashioned to suit the purposes of the nation.