This article analyzes M.P. Pogodin's assessment of England's sociopolitical system from the 1830s to the 1860s. Having visited London in 1839, the Moscow historian discovered the strengths and weaknesses of that state. He was repelled by the cult of money, social inequality, corruption, and the impotence of the English crown. Parliamentary debates were, in his view, futile. At the same time, Pogodin was impressed by the English love of history, tradition, and “custom”. He found the English aristocracy haughty, yet still “majestic”. The industry and technical achievements of the leading bourgeois-capitalist power captivated his imagination. The rural countryside he observed around London appeared immaculate, awakening in Pogodin liberal reformist hopes. These were, of course, muted during the period of domestic political reaction in the late 1840`s and early 1850s. But the era of the Great Reforms brought them back to life. Advocating for the bourgeois-capitalist modernization of Russia, Pogodin constantly appealed to the English experience. The English aristocracy and parliament no longer evoked rejection and skepticism, but admiration. Publicity, which had taken root in London, was destined, in his view, to take root in Russia as well. An analysis of the English “theme” in M.P. Pogodin's work is thus conducted in parallel with the identification of shifts in the historian's ideological position as a whole.
For citation: Ivanov E.D. England in the assessments of M.P. Pogodin: to the evolution of social and political views of the historian, Ivanovo State University Bulletin. Series: Humanities, 2026, iss. 2, pp. 122—130.