Stankevich Circle

a literary and philosophical group founded in Moscow in 1831 by N. V. Stankevich. During its first, or university, phase (until 1834), the circle was composed of Moscow University students. Among them were Ia. M. Neverov, who was later active in public education; S. M. Stroev, who became a historian; and the poets V. I. Krasov, I. P. Kliushnikov, and A. A. Beer. O. M. Bodianskii was associated with the group, and K. S. Aksakov joined it in 1832. The circle’s second, postuniver-sity phase was its more active and productive period. Its members included V. G. Belinskii, M. A. Bakunin, P. Ia. Petrov (the future Orientalist), V. P. Botkin, and M. N. Katkov. The historian T. N. Granovskii shared many of its views.

The members of the circle were drawn together by a common interest in philosophy, history, and literature, a hatred of serfdom, and the personal charm of Stankevich. Chiefly absorbed in the study of German idealist philosophy, first F. Schelling and later G. Hegel, the members of the circle—unlike the members of the Herzen-Ogarev circle—did not set themselves specific political tasks. Ideologically, however, the groups were similar. Herzen described them as being linked by “a profound feeling of alienation from official Russia and the surrounding milieu . . .” (Sobr. soch., vol. 9,1956, p. 36).

After Stankevich went abroad, the circle gradually disintegrated, and by 1839 it had ceased to exist. The circle contributed to the spread of classical German philosophy, notably Hegelian dialectics in Russia, as well as to the dissemination of Enlightenment ideas and humanistic ideals. The members of the circle influenced the development of Russian journalism in the 1830’s through their publications in the magazines Teleskop (Telescope) and Moskovskii nabliudatel’ (The Moscow Observer).