The journal of Ksenofont A. Govorsky “Vestnik Yugo-Zapadnoy I Zapadnoy Rossii” (“South-West and West Russia Herald”) is known in the history of pubic thought as odious and reactionary. However, this stereotypical image needs some revision: the anti-Polish discourse on the pages of the magazine was not so much nationalistic as anti-aristocratic in nature. Considering the “Poles” primarily as carriers of the aristocratic principles, the editorial board of the magazine claimed to protect the broad masses of the people. Throughout its short history, the magazine consistently opposed both revolutionary and aristocratic propaganda. However, the regional limitations of the problems covered in the magazine did not give it the opportunity to reflect on the essential closeness of the revolutionary and reactionary principles. Yu.F. Samarin and I.S. Aksakov – whose conservative-democratic views, on the whole, were close to “Western Russianism”, promoted by the authors of “Vestnik Yugo-Zapadnoy I Zapadnoy Rossii”, managed to reach that goal.
SIBERIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE. Janet M. Hartley. 2014. New Haven, London: Yale University Press. xx + 289, illustrated, hard cover. ISBN 978-0-300-16794-8. £25.00.