An Empire of “Flourishing Complexity”: Ottoman Traditionalism and Modernization in the Writings of Konstantin Leontiev, 1831–91

It is sometimes assumed that the educated Russians perceived the Ottoman Empire in the manner of Nicholas I as a “sick man of Europe.” Nevertheless, there were significant variations within the dominant discourse of the Ottoman decline. This paper proposes to explore Konstantin Leontiev’s heterodox views of the Ottoman Turkey, within the context of the representations of the Ottoman Empire in the 19^th century Russia. An important religious philosopher, Leontiev developed his views during his diplomatic service in the Balkans in the 1860s and the 1870s. Frequently characterized in literature as a “late Pan-Slavist,” Leontiev was in fact a sharp critic of many of the Russian Panslavism’s received ideas. This is particularly evident in his discussion of internal situation in the Ottoman Empire, which he portrayed as a space of encounter between the “flourishing complexity” of a traditional society and the homogenizing and simplifying influences of modernity. Applying this framework to the reinterpretation of particular conflicts that animated the European Turkey, such as the Greek-Bulgarian Church schism of (1870-1872), Leontiev invariably sided with both Christian and Ottoman traditionalists against both the Balkan nationalists and the Ottoman modernizers. This constituted a remarkable inflection of the Russian discourse about the Ottoman Empire, whereby the prevailing association of the Ottomans and traditionalism was given a positive valence.