Paola Ferretti (University of Cambridge), V. F. Malinovskii and his "Rassuzhdenie o mire i voine"
Vasilii Fedorovich Malinovskii (1765-1814) is a notable figure in the history of Russian thought. He left posterity a rich and original body of ideas, condensed in a few hundred pages, much still unpublished. His published work appeared in the crucial years between the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon and exerted an influence on the development of Russian thought which has yet to be recognized to its true extent.
Malinovskii was born in Moscow into a family of noble origin. Soon after he completed his studies he was recruited by the historian G. F. Miiller to work in the Moscow Archive of the College for Foreign Affairs. There he spent a few years, before being transferred to Petersburg. In 1789 he asked to be moved to the diplomatic mission in London, in the service of Count Semen Vorontsov. When he returned to Petersburg, almost two years later, he took with him the already completed first part of what remains his most significant work, the Rassuzhdenie o mire i voine. written at Richmond in 1790. Its sequel was composed later, in 1798, near Petersburg, and the two parts were not published in Russia until 1803. Waiting for a more propitious moment, Malinovskii never managed to publish its third part, rediscovered only in recent times.
In 1791 he expressed the wish to be sent to the war operations in Turkey. By the time he arrived in Jassy the war between Russia and Turkey (which began in 1787) had already ended, and as secretary he took part in the peace negotiations. He had to spend another two years in Jassy (from 1800 to 1802), as General Consul in Moldavia and Wallachia, before returning to his former work in the College for Foreign Affairs in Petersburg. After long years of faithful, unrewarded service in the College, Malinovskii became in 1811 the first Director of the Tsarkoe Selo Lycee. Moving from the antechambers of great foreign politics to the corridors of the most promising Lycee in Russia in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, he acquired a unique opportunity to influence with his views and ideas a group of intelligent young men, groomed to be the future leaders of Russian society. He served, however, as Director for only two years, dying in 1814 at the age of forty-nine.
Malinovskii's life was characterized by a constant and untiring search for ways to implement the projects that he elaborated to solve many of the most relevant social and political problems of his time. The fusion of the theoretical treatment of the question of peace with concrete proposals for its attainment distinguishes in a particular way his tract Rassuzhdenie o mire i voine. It has no precedent in the history of Russian thinking on the question of peace, and shares some features with the ideas expressed by better known European authors on the same theme such as Jeremy Bentham, William Penn and Saint-Pierre. The tract is one of Malinovskii's earliest works, but it already presents a mature political vision on the problem.
Part I of Rassuzhdenie o mire i voine is mostly focused on a highly critical depiction of war. Malinovskii attacks the prevailing opinion in favour of war, showing its utter irreconciliability with the new historical era marked by the advent of the laws of Reason. The ideal referent of Malinovskii's discourse is always Europe, a community highly defined by the presence of the Enlightenment and of common cultural and spiritual features. His primary intent here is to do away with current distortions that favour war, so he reviews all the possible arguments, beginning with the one of war as necessary to defence and territorial expansion, to the one of war as a salutary curb on excessive population growth. Considering the psychological factors influencing man's inclination towards war, Malinovskii critically analizes the suggestive power of war rhetoric and the figure of the conqueror. The Russian thinker answers these arguments by opposing to them a different idea of the greatness of a people and of a leader, linked to a more authentic vision of the people's welfare, to which he gives absolute priority. In his thought there also emerges the necessity for a profound revision of politics as commonly practised at the courts of Europe, characterized by a detrimental secretiveness which prevents peoples from having any influence on the ruling of their states.
Part II is devoted to illustrating Malinovskii's plan for the definitive elimination of war in Europe. Here he underlines the ineffectiveness of the current system of mediation, where neither the temporary peace agreements nor the alliance agreements can act as rules, being dictated by changeable and particular conditions, and therefore variable themselves. He introduces the idea of the necessity to have permanent laws in order to rule the mutual conduct of the states. Independence, territorial sovereignty and General Council, formed by the delegates of the European states, would make laws respected. Each case of aggression would be settled within the "General Union". The mutual respect among states would not be dictated by coercion but by agreement, by considering that the benefits of some states are inseparable from those of the others. Malinovskii even suggested a form of control of the people over the conduct of the governor.
Part III is oriented towards a definition of the social and juridical aspects of Malinovskii's proposal. Illustrating his criticism of the conventional law of nations, the Russian thinker suggests a new regulation for the relations among peoples. His formulation of the concept of state, as based upon a stronger identity between language and state itself, would be the first step towards a re-definition of European balance. He also shows how a correct interpretation of the Christian doctrine is functional to a pacific coexistence of European peoples. The building of supranational structures can provide an escape from the arbitrary use of power among states. However, within each state it is necessary to carry out social reforms in order to eliminate any state of suffering and exploitation that is in clear contradiction to the pursuit of peoples' welfare. In this part we, therefore, find Malinovskii's radical proposal for the abolition of serfdom and a periodical redistribution of the land among its 'natural' common owners.