Accusation of «protectors» of autocratic statehood in hidden nihilism was a common place in the liberal journalism of the 19th -20th centuries. These comparisons were caused not only by the ideological hostility, but also by the fundamental reluctance of idealistic publicists and philosophers to put up with the realities of practical politics. However, the relations of the native conservative thought with nihilism were indeed ambiguous. In general, both the logic of the political struggle and the very spirit of the age led to the fact that fighters with revolutionary extremism often mirrored many of the features of left-wing radicals. To the latter also contributed the fact that Russian conservatism of that time was not so «conservative», and some of its ideologists came either from the revolutionary milieu or were keen on the liberal and socialist ideas in their young years. The main trends of Russian conservatism of the 1860-ies - conservative nationalism and aristocratic conservatism - accused each other in nihilism with equal success. The first was appealing to the «non-nationality» of their opponents, the second - appealing to their «non-class» theory. The bug of nihilism, thus, turned into a factor separating them conservatives instead of uniting them in the face of the "common enemy".