Autocracy, Despotism and Democracy, Part 1: Israel, Rome and Constantinople (To 1453) and Autocracy, Despotism and Democracy, Part 2: the Age of Reason (1453-1789)
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AUTOCRACY, DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY An Historical Approach to the Relationship between Orthodoxy and Politics Part 3: THE AGE OF REVOLUTION (1789-1861) Vladimir Moss © Copyright Vladimir Moss, 2013: All Rights Reserved The French monarchy must decline into despotism or become a democracy - two opposite kinds of revolution, but both calamitous. The Princes of the Blood to King Louis XVI. Lo, thy dread Empire, CHAOS! is restor'd; Light dies before thy uncreating word: Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; And Universal Darkness buries All. Alexander Pope, Dunciad. No Monarchy, limited or unlimited, nor any of the old Republics, can possibly be safe as long as this strange, nameless, wild, enthusiastic thing is established in the Centre of Europe. Edmund Burke (1791). The human I, wishing to depend only on itself, not recognising and not accepting any other law besides its own will - in a word, the human I, taking the place of God, - does not, of course, constitute something new among men. But such has it become when raised to the status of a political and social right, and when it strives, by virtue of this right, to rule society. This is the new phenomenon which acquired the name of the French revolution in 1789. F.I. Tiutchev, Russia and the Revolution (1848). The King reigns, but does not govern. Adolphe Thiers (1830). Come to me, Lucifer, Satan, whoever you may be! Devil whom the faith of my fathers contrasted with God and the Church. I will act as spokesman for you and will demand nothing of you. Proudhon, Idée générale de la revolution. Darwin created an entire system according to which life is a struggle for existence, a struggle for the strong against the weak, where those that are conquered are doomed to destruction& This is already the beginning of a bestial philosophy, and those who come to believe in it wouldn't think twice about killing a man, assaulting a woman, or robbing their closest friend - and they would do all this calmly, with a full recognition of their right to commit their crimes. St. Barsanuphius of Optina. The root elements of our Russian life have been characterised long ago, and they are so powerfully and completely expressed by the familiar words: Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. That is what we must preserve! When these principles become weaker or fail, the Russian people will cease to be Russian. It will then lose its sacred three-coloured flag. Bishop Theophan the Recluse, Letters, VII, p. 289. Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................6 I. THE WEST: THE MAN-GOD ARISES (1789-1830) .................................................8 “DESPOTIC DEMOCRACY: BURKE VERSUS PAINE.................................................17 ILLUMINISM......................................................................................................................22 THE JACOBIN TERROR ...................................................................................................31 THE REVOLUTION AND RELIGION.............................................................................38 BABEUF AND THE DIRECTORY....................................................................................47 THE NAPOLEONIC STATE .............................................................................................51 NAPOLEON AND CATHOLICISM .................................................................................60 LA GRANDE NATION ......................................................................................................65 THE JEWS AND THE REVOLUTION .............................................................................69 NAPOLEON AND THE JEWS..........................................................................................78 THE LATIN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS.....................................................................82 THE NATURE OF ROMANTICISM ................................................................................85 ROMANTICISM AND GERMAN NATIONALISM.......................................................90 THE GERMAN WAR OF LIBERATION..........................................................................97 THE IDEOLOGY OF COUNTER-REVOLUTION........................................................101 II. THE EAST: THE MAN-GOD DEFEATED (1789-1830) .....................................110 THE ANNEXATION OF GEORGIA ..............................................................................116 THE YEDINOVERIE........................................................................................................123 THE MURDER OF TSAR PAUL ....................................................................................126 THE GOLDEN AGE OF MASONRY .............................................................................132 ALEXANDER, NAPOLEON AND SPERANSKY.........................................................136 NAPOLEON'S INVASION OF RUSSIA........................................................................144 THE CHILDREN OF 1812 ...............................................................................................149 THE PEACE OF EUROPE...............................................................................................155 THE DECEMBRIST REBELLION...................................................................................161 THE POLISH QUESTION...............................................................................................166 THE JEWISH QUESTION ...............................................................................................169 THE REACTION AGAINST MASONRY ......................................................................176 ST. SERAPHIM OF SAROV............................................................................................186 THE GREEK REVOLUTION...........................................................................................190 GREECE AFTER THE REVOLUTION...........................................................................203 THE SERBIAN REVOLUTION.......................................................................................207 III. THE WEST: LIBERALISM, SOCIALISM, NATIONALISM ............................209 (1830-1861).....................................................................................................................209 LIBERTY AND LIBERALISM .........................................................................................209 HISTORY AND HISTORICISM .....................................................................................216 HISTORICISM AND RELATIVISM...............................................................................224 HEGEL'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY ...........................................................................232 THE RISE OF AMERICA.................................................................................................238 LIBERALISM AND FREE TRADE .................................................................................245 THE BRITISH AND THE IRISH.....................................................................................253 CHINA AND THE WEST ................................................................................................259 THE JUSTIFICATIONS OF IMPERIALISM..................................................................264 MILL ON LIBERTY ..........................................................................................................270 THE GEOPOLITICS OF SLAVERY................................................................................277 VICTORIAN RELIGION AND MORALITY..................................................................282 UTOPIAN SOCIALISM ...................................................................................................291 MARXIAN SOCIALISM..................................................................................................302 1848: "THE SPRINGTIME OF THE NATIONS" ..........................................................309 THE JEWS AND THE WEST...........................................................................................320 NAPOLEON III, THE MASONS AND ITALY..............................................................334 SCHOPENHAUER: THE WORLD AS WILL.................................................................338 DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION .......................................................................343 THE RISE OF GERMANY...............................................................................................347 NATIONALISM, CATHARISM AND ROMANTICISM..............................................351 JEWISH NATIONALISM.................................................................................................359 IV. THE EAST: THE GENDARME OF EUROPE (1830-1861) ................................364 TSAR NICHOLAS I ..........................................................................................................364 THE POLISH REVOLUTION .........................................................................................369 THE RUSSIAN CHURCH AND THE ANGLICANS ....................................................373 THE JEWS UNDER NICHOLAS ....................................................................................376 RUSSIAN HEGELIANISM..............................................................................................379 RUSSIA AND EUROPE: (1) CHAADAEV VS. PUSHKIN ..........................................383