Religious Westernism of Vladimir Zabugin

The article is devoted to the research and journalistic work of the Russian-Italian scholar Vladimir Nikolaevich Zabugin (1880–1924), which is considered in the context of religious Westernism, a social movement that considered the Roman Church to be the basis of European civilization and saw in Catholicism a social force capable of becoming a conductor of “Christian politics” and transform society and the church in Russia. The origins of this trend go back to the ideas of P.Ya. Chaadaev, in whose Philosophical Letters religious Westernism first received theoretical form, and the activities of the “first Russian Jesuit” I.S. Gagarin, who was guided in practice by the historiosophical ideas of the “Basmanny philosopher”. The article shows how Zabugin’s historiosophical and social thought moved in line with the ideas of Russian Catholicism: the central theme of his research and journalistic works was the problem of finding the foundations of the unity of Eastern and Western cultures, Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and points out the difference in assessments of the heritage of Byzantium in Zabugin’s articles and the writings of other Russian (philo)Catholics (P.Ya. Chaadaev, I.S. Gagarin, V.S. Solovyov), as well as the limitations of the scholar’s approach to the problem of church division (primarily underestimation theological and dogmatic differences). Zabugin’s contribution to the reconciliation of churches is analyzed, which is associated with his activities in the magazine Roma et l’Oriente (Rome and the East) as an editor and author of articles. The paper also examines Zabugin’s social views, which are reflected in his book on the Russian revolution Il gigante folle (The Mad Giant), written on the basis of impressions from a trip to Russia in 1917. Being a consistent Catholic, Zabugin sees the solution to social issues in the spirit of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, i.e. in Christian brotherhood and charity.