The idea of the «Teutonic captivity» under which the Russian philosophy fell was expressed by Sobolev. Later on this idea was subject by some critical revaluation by I.F.Shapovalov. According to the author of the comment, the assertion that German philosophical ideas exerted a one-sided and sinister influence on the Russian intelligentsia that was unable to get free of the way of thinking which was alien to the Russian soil is to be rethought considerably. It is quite evident that the fact of captivity cannot be denied. But was that captivity really the Teutonic' one, i.e. were shallow and vapid rationalistic opinions of the Russian intelligentsia the results of the passion the Russian intelligentsia felt precisely for the German philosophy? On the contrary, the German is to be considered as an ally of the Russian religious and philosophical reflections in its struggle against common place rationalism and doctrinarianism. The author sees the origins of the intellectual paradigm wedded to speculative ideas and ready-made intellectual prescriptions exactly in the French tradition, in the French positivism of the 19th century in particular.