Official Nationality Theory

in Russian and Soviet historiography, the name used to denote the reactionary social and political views of the ruling circles of tsarist Russia, particularly during the reign of Nicholas I (1796–1855), in the areas of education, science, and literature. The theory was based on the formula “orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality.” The term “official nationality theory” was introduced in 1872–73 by the historian A. N. Pypin, in the journal Vestnik Evropy.