To the problem of the "German question" in the Russian Empire prehistory: an emotional analysis of the colonization situation of the first half of the XIXth century

The author presents an emotional analysis of the colonization situation of the first half of the XIXth century and shows the connection between interethnic contacts of the colonization period with the development of so-called “German question” in the Russian Empire. Special attention is paid to the processes of interaction between Slavic (the Ukrainean, Russian) and German-speaking (the Mennonites, the colonist) colonization groups. Under conditions of colonization, inter-ethnic autostereotypes were formed. These ideas about the “others” were kept and saved in the field of collective unconscious and social memory, but under conditions of a conformist (strictly regulated) society, the autostereotypes were neutral and and did not show aggression. . The mobilization of the Russian nation was carried out according to the antagonistic scenario, which caused the formation of the “German question” as one of the theoretical nationalist concepts in the Empire. The ideologists of nationalism used autostereotypes to form anti-German sentiments. The resentment of masses was formed on the basis of negative experience of contacts. The resentment is a a sense of hostility, when the logic recedes, and the chaos of emotions prevails. It was used by supporters of nationalism to rally society around the titular ethnic group, to form emotional communities and to solve problems of eliminating competition with the most stable and successful ethnic groups, including Russian Germans. In the subsequent period, resentment was a psychological motivator of the lower classes group aggressive behavior in the inter-ethnic conflicts.