Language in Political and Geographical Doctrine of V. I. Lamansky

Abstract

The article deals with the doctrine of language proposed by outstanding Russian scholar of the second half of the XIXth century V.I. Lamansky (1833–1914). The author shows that Lamansky’s conception of language was influenced by the Slavophile philosophy and represented a continuation of both Slavophile historiosophy and philosophy of language. It is noted that Lamansky included his doctrine of language into his political-geographical conception (the doctrine of the three worlds) which considered language as a key means of forming different specific
cultures. Lamansky held that the Russian language is only possible to become a unifying force for the nations of the Greek-Slavic world. The Slavs and other nations of the Greek-Slavic world should adopt it as a common literary, scientific and diplomatic language, otherwise, they will be assimilated by more successful in politics and literature nations. According to Lamansky, the time is coming when the struggle of the states is being replaced with the competition of the world-historical languages. Having adopted Russian, the Slavs not only are able to foster their culture,
but also, having made Russian a world language, will be able to compete with the other nations. The article contains Lamansky’s views concerning the perspective of the European languages among which English is only considered to keep primacy.