The phrases "Slavic idea", "Slavic question"," Slavic solidarity"," Slavic reciprocity"," Slavic community"," Slavic unity " have existed for at least two hundred years. Somewhat later, the terms "pan-Slavism", "Austroslavism", "Yugoslavism" and some others of a similar type and content appeared. Although these concepts are not always clear definitions suitable for modern scientific terminology, they are still quite widely used. This is due, on the one hand, to the strength of tradition, and, on the other, to the complexity of the corresponding phenomena .1The history of the "Slavic idea" and the "Slavic question" in pre-revolutionary Russia was given a lot of attention by both domestic and foreign historiography. A number of reports were devoted to it at the IX International Congress of Slavists, held in Kiev in September 1983. The purpose of this article is to use the concrete material of the pre-Reform period to consider some general questions concerning the genesis, essence, and social significance of the idea of Slavic solidarity. Slavic tribes began to realize their ethnic and linguistic kinship in the early Middle Ages. The feudal era as a whole was marked by a further growth of the ethnic consciousness of the Slavs, the formation of a number of Slavic ethnic communities at the level of the feudal nationality 2 . It is methodologically incorrect to identify the ethno-social relations of the feudal-folk stage with the national ties characteristic of the so-called modern, i.e. bourgeois nations that appeared at a later time. Although the idea of Slavic solidarity is deeply rooted in the past, a significant part of public life in the form of " sla- 1 For all this, see, in particular: Koleika I. Slavic programs and the idea of Slavic solidarity in the 19th and 20th centuries Prague, 1964; Volkov V. K. On the question of the origin of the terms " Pan-Germanism "and"pan-Slavism". In: Slavyano-germanskie kul'turnye svyazi i otnosheniya [Slavic-German Cultural Relati ... Read more