Pan-Slavism: the history of the geopolitical idea

The article examines the phenomenon of “pan-Slavism” as an attempt to explain the variety of problems associated with the cultural, ethnic and political unity of the Slavs. For the first time, the ideology of pan-Slavism arose among the Western Slavs, which then reached Russia. For the Slavs, the ideas of pan-Slavism were a means of self-defence against the threat of assimilation and dissolution in the surrounding peoples. In addition to political and social, most foreign Slavs also experienced cultural humiliation. In the Russian Empire and the USSR, pan-Slavism had an oppositional character. The author used historical, logical, comparative and other methods to achieve the study tasks. In the study course, famous pan-Slavism philosophers' works of the past and present are used. The author concludes that pan-Slavism played an outstanding role in awakening the national consciousness of the Slavic peoples, including those aliens to Russia, by suspending the assimilation of the Slavs by Western and Eastern conquerors. The Balkan Slavs generally gained independence from the hands of Russia.