"russian Empire"

August, von. Haxthausen is a nobleman of Prussia. He was invited by Nicholas I to visit and investigate to Russia in1843, and had finished the book 《Russian empire》 when he returned home from there.In the writings of this two-volumes, He emphasized that the Russian rural commune and its local autonomous tradition, With Herzen as the representative of the Russian intellectuals accepted his idea and becomes one of the core contents of populism. The paper discusses in detail the discovery of the Russian rural commune and the theory of Haxthansen. as well as analyzed the theories according to the archives and literature materials. There is still a doubt about whether Haxthausen first "discovered" the Russian rural commune indeedly, but the thought only caused the western European Society's thinking and attention that to Slavic world until the book had introduced into Europe later.The Eastern Orthodox Church is another important aspect of Haxthausen's concern. He is deeply moved by the devoution which the Russians has to religious beliefs. He had some communication with Slavophiles and also Westerners in the process of Noble salon which he participated in, and has found the corresponding and different contents from the two factions finally. In his view, the Western European nations'excessive advocate to philosophy and rational can guide them to seek the truth through the logic reasoning way. By comparison, the Orthodox maintains the Christianity's tradition and the kernel more good, But, Orthodox is also faced the serious threat of denominations' discretion and believers drain, While the best way to solve the Russian religious crisis and even political crisis is Christian alliance, that is, On the one hand keeping the plain nature of the Orthodox, on the other hand absorbing the doctrine and preaching methods of the Catholic system.In addition to The Russian rural commune and the Orthodox, Haxthausen also has described the19th century social whole style in Russia. From serfdom reformation to aristocratic transformation, then to the commercial traffic problems and the status of women, Haxthausen has put forward lots of feasible suggestions from all aspects for the Russia existing social problems. Although the Nicholas I was very appreciated Haxthausen, the emperor didn't drive to implement a comprehensive social reform; moreover, the1848European revolution storm was soon to strike the whole Europe society. So as a conservative and romantic reformer, Haxthausen's ideal of reform was doomed to fail.