Moscow, Nauka Publ. 1984. 286 p.

The study of the activities of the Decembrists and their ideology has long been accompanied by the study of more specific issues, such as historical, philosophical, economic, military, literary and critical views of the participants of the movement. Their foreign policy views were somewhat obscured, which were only partially covered in the works of A. L. Narochnitsky, M. V. Nechkina, B. E. Syroechkovsky, A.V. Fadeev, I. S. Dostyan, M. G. Nersisyan and other researchers. The monograph of O. V. Orlik, a senior researcher at the Institute of History of the USSR of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Doctor of Historical Sciences, a specialist in the history of public thought and foreign policy of Russia in the XIX century, provides a holistic analysis of the problem and thus fills in this gap.

The author's success was largely due to mastering the results of previous research and especially attracting a wide range of sources. Along with the multi-volume publication of the documents "Foreign Policy of Russia of the XIX and early XX centuries", the monograph uses many archival materials. Among them, for example, M. F. Orlov's reports about an extremely difficult diplomatic mission to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We can also mention other little-known but very informative sources : notes on Armenia by E. E. Lachinov, on Central Asia by A. A. Zhemchuzhnikov, and SI's diary. Turgenev with the most interesting assessments of international relations after the Vienna Congress.

A thorough analysis of the foreign policy views of the Decembrists, their diplomatic activities, and reflections on the problems of war and peace deepens our understanding of the humanistic and educational foundations of their ideology, and their contribution to the theoretical development of democratic principles of international relations.

O. V. Orlik quite naturally begins his research with a central theme in the history of the foreign policy of tsarism after the victory over Napoleon - the Decembrists 'criticism of the counter-revolutionary "Vienna system", the" Holy Alliance", and the decisions of its congresses. This topic occupied a prominent place in the political discussions of the revolutionary officers, who were outraged by the monarchs ' plot "against the freedom of peoples", as S. I. Turgenev wrote (p. 36). V. K. Kuchelbecker, like other Decembrists, was inspired by the terrible picture of " armed Freedom, the struggle of peoples and tsars "(p. 48) in Southern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century- x years of the XIX century. They enthusiastically welcomed the revolutions in Spain, Naples, Portugal, and Greece. "What is mail is revolution!" wrote N. I. Turgenev admiringly in his diary (p. 41).

The Decembrists were concerned about reports of the success of the troops that rose up against the Spanish monarchy. They were inflamed by the news of an uprising in Greece. M. F. Orlov, P. G. Kakhovsky, I. D. Yakushkin, K. F. Ryleev, and V. K. Kuchelbecker were eager to fight against the Ottoman oppressors "To the land of heroes and gods". The participants of the movement were indignant at the short-sighted policy of Alexander I, who, in the name of the principle of legitimacy, did not want to support the liberation movement against Turkish rule in the Balkans. The foreign policy program of the provisional revolutionary government, which the Decembrists thought to create after the overthrow of the autocracy, was supposed to include military protection of the Greeks and other Balkan peoples, and then the creation of a federation of Balkan (in another version - Slavic) states. This was the idea of a democratic Slavic federation, which could be formed after the elimination of the autocratic-serf system in Russia.

A lot of new data is given in the book about the participation of exiled Decembrists in the Caucasian wars, in the liberation of Armenia. The Decembrists were outraged by the colonial policy of tsarism in the Caucasus, the brutal military-feudal methods of "pacifying" and" subjugating " the mountain peoples. In their official notes and diaries, the Decembrists developed the idea of the importance of strengthening friendly ties with the Caucasian peoples, the need for economic and cultural development of the region. The political documents of the Decembrists and their publicism also reflected projects for the comprehensive development of trade and economic ties with the peoples of Central Asia, plans for the development of the Amur River, thoughts on the need to expand the economic and educational activities of the Russian-American Company in Russian America and on the creation of a joint venture between the two countries.

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fleet, in the Pacific Ocean to protect Siberia and limit the influence of the United States and England in the Far East.

The advanced nature of the ideological and theoretical views of the Decembrists affected their thoughts on the foreign policy activities of the future revolutionary government. Rejecting the colonial policy of Tsarism and its expansionist aspirations, P. I. Pestel urged "not to think about extending the borders, but about building prosperity in these vast possessions" (p.258). The Decembrists had not yet come to an understanding of the social and class conditionality of wars, but they already distinguished unjust, aggressive wars from just, liberating ones. The Decembrists ' foreign policy program, which combined general democratic features with utopian views, as well as elements of noble liberalism, bore the stamp of class narrowness (p.275).

Apparently, the book should have emphasized that when defining the general principles of foreign policy, democratic ideas occupied a dominant position, but when solving specific issues, the Decembrists sometimes deviated from these principles. There is no doubt that the principles of international relations put forward by P. I. Pestel, N. I. Turgenev and other ideologists of the movement are of a general democratic nature: peaceful and good-neighborly relations with all countries, the development of political, economic, cultural and scientific ties, equality of rights of large and small states, non-interference in the affairs of other states, support for the liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples (pp. 237-238, 257-258, etc.).

One can probably argue about how fully and accurately the ideas of the movement as a whole are reflected here, but this begs some questions about the formulation of these principles. The author's statement about the ideological commonality of the Decembrists with representatives of the then advanced thought of the West looks too abstract. The well-known position that the Decembrists shared the democratic ideas of Europe was not fully revealed. The names of such influential philosophers and political thinkers in the circles of advanced officers as I. Kant and W. Peni, T. Jefferson and A. Detu de Tracy are not mentioned in the book. The peculiarity of the foreign policy views of the Decembrists would be desirable to reveal in comparison with the political ideology of the Russian liberals, as well as the noble revolutionaries of Spain and Poland.

In conclusion - about the actual political aspect of the topic. The study of the criticism of the reactionary course of tsarist foreign policy by representatives of advanced Russia confronts the versions of the "historical roots" of the "Soviet threat"that are rooted in modern bourgeois literature. It is impossible to give an objective assessment of Russia's foreign policy in the first quarter of the nineteenth century without taking into account that the policy of tsarism did not reflect the views of the advanced part of society. In addition to tsarist, serf-like Russia, there was a revolutionary Russia. And in the end, it was not the tsarist ministers and diplomats, but the Decembrists, who represented the interests of the peoples of Russia, who put forward democratic alternatives to the foreign policy of tsarism and the reactionary aspirations of the"Holy Alliance".

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