Slavophiles

   In 19th-century Russia, Slavophiles were intellectuals who emphasized Russia’s unique historic and cultural identity (often called samobytnost>); they contrasted sharply with the Westernizers, who believed that Russia had a common history with Europe and was ultimately destined to adopt Western economic and social practices. The term derives from the Russian word slavianophil, which signifies someone who supports Slavs, the ethnolinguistic group to which Russians belong, along with Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs, Poles, and others. Slavophiles emphasized Russian traditional forms of commonality and unity as well as an individual’s spiritual development. The term is mostly out of use in contemporary Russian language; however, ideas of pan-Slavism and the messianic role of the Russian nation are instrumental in neo-Eurasianism, an ideology that carries on the Slavophile opposition of the Westernizers, now personified by the Atlanticists.