HOMONOVTSY AND M.O. KOYALOVICH. PRO AND CONTRA

Abstract

The views of representatives of conservative and socialist currents of the intellectual Belarusian thought of the XIX century are investigated – M. O. Koyalovich’s and the authors’ of the journal “Gomon”. The main similarities and differences of views of these thinkers on the problem of the development of national identity are revealed. The most important provisions of the programs of revival of the Belarusian people, put forward by the author of the concept of Western Russia and the creators of the revolutionary group, are analysed. The peculiarities of understanding by M. O. Koyalovich and Belarusian populists of the role of the national intelligentsia, the prospects for an independent political existence of the native land, ways of preserving the originality of the Belarusian culture are considered. The interrelation of the spiritual foundations of the worldview of M.O. Koyalovich with the main tenets of the Russian conservative thought of that time was established. The ways of changing the Marxist doctrine in the works of Belarusian socialist revolutionaries are analyzed, their attempts to lay the foundations of the national identity of the socialist idea are noted.