The article is devoted to the long-overdue question in Russian historiography about the use of new (more adequate) terminology to characterize the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian autocracy in the first half of the 19th century, for the era of the reign of emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I, the last half–century on the eve of the peasant reform of 1861 and the “great reforms” of the 1860s – 1870s., which meant a radical change in the state of Russia, its transition to capitalist development. At the same time, outdated terminology, for example, the provision on “serfdom autocracy” in relation to this period of national history, is proposed to be replaced by an expansion of the semantic field of the concept of “legitimism”, used so far only mainly to the Western European region of the first half of the 19th century. Practically no attention has been paid to this issue in modern literature. This gap is filled in the work by using, first of all, the comparative method. We compare the features of the development of Russia in the 18th century, especially its second half, with similar phenomena of the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I, and also identify common trends in its development with a number of European countries of that period, where a similar policy was pursued, albeit in slightly different conditions. This article provides some new arguments regarding the application of this term for this era of Russian history, which will be more consistent with it. We believe that our position on this issue, if supported by the scientific community, will contribute to a better understanding of this era, and the terminology that will be used in this regard will better correspond to it.
Key words: Russian autocracy, Alexander I, Nicholas I, legitimism, crisis of serfdom, terminology.
Долгих-АНCitation link: Dolgikh A.N. On the use of the term «legitimism» applied to the Russian history of the first half of the 19th century // Humanities researches of the Central Russia. – 2024. – №2. – P. 7-12.
DOI: 10.24412/2541-9056-2024-231-7-12