In Europe assorted national conceptions appeared in the course of the nineteenth century, while in Russia they were associated with the Slavophile movement. the difference lies in the fact that European romanticism opposed old religious forms, and aimed at a revival of religion and the creation of a new synthesis. the Slavophiles deprived romanticism of all anti-Christian features and inscribed it into the Christian vision of the world. By considering the Slavophiles not so much from a European perspective but that of European history, we are entitled to speak not about the birth but about the renascence of the idea of the nation. although the Slavophiles made use of the methodology of German philosophy, the ideas which they applied were actually those of the old believers. as a rule, they perceived the orthodox church and the obshchina as different, each calling for a separate interpretation. by taking into account the impact of the old believers, it becomes possible to conduct a new interpretation - the commune is no longer merely an intellectual construction but an actual historical fact. in the obshchina the Slavophiles discovered the realisation of the ideals of old rus', with the axis of national life being the organic unity of the obshchina, the sobor, and the church.