Assessment of the Assimilation Potential of the Russian People in the National Social Thought of the 19th century

The article focuses on the analysis of assessments of the assimilation ability of the Russian people in Russian social thought of the 19th century. The term was used i8n relation to interaction between an alien and a Russian element in a role of a peaceful colonizer, while not supported at all, or supported to an insignificant degree by the state. The definition of assimilation ability was considered accordingly as the ability to transfer one's own cultural basis to other nations. The process of assimilation of the peoples is defined as an essential component of the formation of an ethnical landscape. Its manifestations in Russian history are associated with the advancement of the Slavs to the northeastern lands, the process of the formation of the Russian state and the Great Russian nationality. It's assimilation abilities analysis allowed researchers to identify two stages. The first stage was defined as successful due to the superiority of the Slavic settlers in socio-cultural terms, the role of the Russian nationality in the formation of the Russian state, as well as the unity of its components. The subsequent loss of assimilation abilities was considered by the Slavophiles and representatives of the conservative-nationalist trend to be a result of the socio-cultural split in the Russian people and the loss of national identity of the intellectual elite. Researchers with a liberal-Western orientation pointed, as a rule, to a low level of culture and education among the Russian people. The general conclusion of the study of the stated topic in Russian social thought suggests that its representatives explained the loss of the assimilation abilities of the Russian people by the peculiarities of the policy of autocracy, the behavior of the national elite, as well as the incompleteness of the process of theoretical understanding of the status of the Russian people within the state.