Paper short abstract:

The ideas of Slavic reciprocity and unity of the peoples of imperial Russia were clearly voiced at the First Ethnographic Exhibition in Moscow. This was due to the strengthening of national movements in foreign Slavic countries, the desire to strengthen the power of Russia and its science

Paper long abstract:

Russian ethnography and Western anthropology differ not only in time of genesis, but also in motivation and practical orientation. Russian ethnology was born as empirical and practical knowledge, based on self-knowledge and the strengthening of the empire. The focus of its attention there was on either an individual people or an imperial gallery of peoples. Western anthropology synthesized the general course of human evolution from fragments of different cultures. The works of Western evolutionists did not feature peoples, but the stages of progress of the cultures of the peoples of the world. This difference was clearly manifested at the First Ethnographic Exhibition in Moscow.

The main scientific and educational goal of this ethnographic exhibition was to demonstrate the huge diversity of the peoples of the Russian Empire and its neighboring Slavic countries, stimulating interest in studying their spiritual and material culture.

One of the leading trends of national movements in foreign Slavic countries in the XIX century were ideas of Slavic unity, which was associated with new outbursts of resistance to Germanization and the Magyarization of foreign Slavs. These ideas, being the result of the unity of the languages and cultures of the Slavic peoples, were interpreted as rapprochement in the field of science, education, common cultural heritage. And the Russian Empire, as the only Slavic independent state at that time, according to the participants of the event, was a support for all Slavic countries. The exhibition opened a new stage in the development of ethnology in Russia.