The Problem of Choosing the Path of Development of Russia in the Philosophy of Westerners and Slavophiles in the 19th Century

In the philosophical discussions of Russia in the 19th century, an important place was given to the problem of the formation of a national idea, the search for new ways of civilizational development of Russia. This topic is still relevant today, it does not lose its problematic nature, since at present, just as in the 19th century, the process of comprehending Russia's place in the world is underway and the problem is being solved: “Which way to go? Choose your own, national path or follow the European tradition in the formation of modern Russian society? These questions were already raised in Russia in the 19th century, when the process of searching for and forming the Russian national idea was actively going on. The purpose of the article is to analyze the problem of choosing the paths of Russia's development in the disputes between Westerners and Slavophiles in the 19th century, to show the similarity of some historical positions on the main problems. The paper discusses the main approaches of the main representative of Russian Westernism P. Ya. Chaadaev and the philosophical ideas of the Slavophile I. V. Kireevsky. The study attempts to find common approaches of these authors to the problem of the development of Russian society and all-Russian ideals, since in modern scientific works, in our opinion, a simplified view of the development of Russian civilization in philosophical disputes in the ideological struggle in the 19th century is widespread. Both the Westernizers and the Slavophiles were looking for the best way for the development of Russia and were confident in its special mission in the civilizational world processes. The work uses a dialectical and historical-philosophical method, which allows us to consider the complex ideological searches of philosophers in the context of the historical development of Russian society in the 19th century. To analyze the philosophical and methodological foundations of the theories of Westerners and Slavophiles in the course of the civilizational choice of the future development of Russia in these theories, the methods of analysis and synthesis, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, were used in the article.