Modernizing Orthodoxy: Russia and the Christian East (1856–1914)

Abstract

The article focuses on “Pan-Slavism” and “Pan-Orthodoxy” to analyze the continuity and change in the Russian relationship to the “Christian East” - mostly Greek and Slavic Christian Orthodox populations in the Ottoman Empire (1856–1914). Far from being conservative utopias, those theories were modern visions that developed in the context of fin-de-siecle Europe and transformed the traditional meaning of the Christian East in order to reformulate cultural identity in late imperial Russia. This kind of conceptualization of Pan-Slavism and Pan-Orthodoxy also contributes to the discussion of how and when alternatives to Western liberal modernity began to be formulated consciously.