The author analyzes the famous Russian historian M.P. Pogodin`s position on the Polish question in 1850s. The
Polish question - the «fatal question», as it came to be called in the Russian press - confronted Russian Panslavists
and Pogodin, an impressive representative of this political movement, with a serious dilemma. On the one hand, if
Russian Panslavists supported any Russian rule of force in Poland, they would be discredited in the eyes of the other
Slavs. On the other hand, in their eyes, Poland supported almost everything that was incompatible with the Panslavist
doctrine. Pogodin's figure is interesting because, given the socio-political trends of mid-nineteenth century, he
proposed the solutions to the problem that were at the same time elaborate and utopian.
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