Sergey Elpatyevsky about Two Russian Attitudes to Heroism during the First World War

Abstract. This article is devoted to S.Y. Elpatyevsky’s views on the phenomenon of heroism during the First World War. This is the first study of the writer’s military journalism in historical science. His work of the period 1914–1918 was greatly influenced by the social atmosphere of war (patriotic enthusiasm and hatred of the enemy). Communicating directly with participants of the war in the hospital, where he worked as a volunteer, Elpatyevsky came to the conclusion that the attitude to the war, heroism, and heroism in society is ambiguous. Soldiers-peasants perceived war differently than urban dwellers and educated soldiers. Under their observation, the writer summed up a solid theoretical basis: L.N. Tolstoy, V.O. Klyuchevsky, P.N. Milyukov and social psychology. Elpatyevsky believed that in the basis of mental differences lie the opposition collectivism/individualism. Hence there are contradictions in the perception of heroism. On the one hand, heroism was perceived as a manifestation of individual courage and bravery. On the other hand, the real hero is a hero "without heroism" who does not suspect that he is doing a heroic deed. The concept of Elpatyevsky is not indisputable. He sharply opposed two groups of Russian society to each other, Russia and the West, he politicized history. However, some of his ideas are in tune with the findings of modern science. Elpatyevsky predicted also the behavior of the soldiers-peasants after the 1917 revolution.

Keywords: the heroism, the First World War, the Russian journalism, liberal populism, Patriotic enthusiasm, the image of the enemy, Germany, Russian nationalism, the psychology of folk, psychology of the educated stratum, collectivism, individualism.