The article dwells on the discussion about the role of the Russian language for the integration of the Slavs between two generations of Panslavists: the "patriarch of Russian Slavic studies" and a convinced Slavophile V.I. Lamansky (1825-1902) and a supporter of the "new Slavic worldview", leader of the Serbian "Radical Party" Lubomir Stojanovic (1860-1930), which unfolded in the journal "Slavyanskyy vek" (Vienna, 1900-1904). The analysis of their argumentation makes it possible to understand the transformations that took place in the ideology of Pan-Slavism in the early 20th century, to explain the revival of the interest in the "Slavic idea" at the turn of the century, and to characterize Pan-Slavism as "cultural and economic" phenomenon in the early the 20th century.