The Balkans in Russian Intellectual History (1711–1877)

The Balkans in the History of Russian Thought (1711–1877)

The Balkans in the History of Russian Thought examines Russia’s growing interest in the Balkans—from the era of Peter the Great to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877—from both historical and intellectual perspectives. The work examines the Balkan uprisings prior to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, moving beyond military and diplomatic developments to analyze them from the perspective of Russian intellectuals, writers, and the press.
The significance that Balkan peoples acquired in the Russian intellectual world alongside the rise of Slavophilism and Pan-Slavism is evaluated in this study within the framework of the interaction between literature and history. The approaches of literary figures such as Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Tolstoy, as well as leading thinkers of the era like Mikhail Katkov and Ivan Aksakov, toward the Balkan issue are examined alongside their impacts on public opinion and political discourse.

Written from an interdisciplinary perspective, the work places the Balkan uprisings at the center of Russian intellectual history, offering a multi-layered analysis of Ottoman-Russian relations through the lenses of literature, the press, and history.