DANILEVSKIJ, NIKOLAJ JAKOVLEVIC

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Image from page 685

DANILEVSKIJ, Nikolaj Jakovlevic. - Russian political writer, b. in Moscow on Dec. 10, 1822, d. in Tiflis on Nov. 19, 1885, best known especially for a book of his, *Russia and Europe* (St. Petersburg 1871), in which, perhaps not without reason, there was seen expressed by a man who held no political office a line of thought pleasing to the leaders of Russian foreign policy.

An advocate of a pan-Slav ideal, he dreamed of a great federation of Slavic peoples, including also Greece and Romania, with Russia at its head and Constantinople as its capital. Less important is another of his works entitled *Darwinism* (ibid. 1885). D.’s figure has been frequently recalled in recent times because of certain aspects of his thought that seem to foreshadow current orientations in the foreign policy of the U.S.S.R.

Bibl.: N. Miljukov, *Iz istorii russkoj intelligencii* (From the history of the Russian intelligentsia), St. Petersburg 1902; E. Lo Gatto, *Storia della Russia*, Florence 1946, pp. 615-16; W. Giusti, *Il panlavismo*, ibid. 1946.