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The article analyses some works by Nikolay Strakhov that served as a source of poetics for Dostoevsky’s novel The Adolescent. It explores how historical-literary and historical-philosophical facts became material for the writer’s poetic laboratory. Namely, the paper describes Strakhov’s articles from the magazines “Vremya,” “Zarya,” and “Grazhdanin,” together with letters to Dostoevsky that are important for the poetics of The Adolescent. Particular attention is paid to the article “A Fatal Question” (1863), in which Strakhov formulated his understanding of “the foundation of Russian civilization” and tried to answer the question “What are we, Russians?”. This question was extremely important for Dostoevsky, who in The Adolescent answered it in an artistic form. The study analyzes the artistic means of embodying the theme of the Russian world in the poetics of the work. In particular, the use of epithet “Russian” and toponym “Russia” is investigated. Dostoevsky’s artistic innovation in the use of allegory in the poetics of the novel is discussed separately. The methodology for studying the evolution of different forms of art is based on the approach developed by Dmitry Chyzhevsky. In his “History of the spirit” Chyzhevsky considered artistic techniques and means as the embodiment of the spiritual life of a people in a certain historical era.

The local-civilizational approach, shared by the author of the article, assumes the existence of various “cultural-historical types” (In the words of his pioneer N.Ya. Danilevsky), which have different “logics of culture” and types of “collective cognitive unconscious” (according to A.V. Smirnov). These qualitative differences formed under the influence of special climatic and geographical conditions (habitat), as well as historical Challenges and the Answers found to them (according to A. Toynbee), found their expression in political and economic institutions, algorithms for responding to crises. One of such institutions for the Russian civilization was the phenomenon of the mobilization state, born as a spontaneous response to a historical challenge, mentally and institutionally fixed later (as a tested means of response). In this article, using the method of historical reconstruction, the author stops at the initial stage of the formation of this very specific manifestation of traditional Russian collectivism.

The article reveals the key characteristics that distinguish Russian civilization from others.

The editorial board presents an issue dedicated to the analysis of politics in the regions of Russia. Two interrelated paradigms of the political design of Russia’s regional diversity are to trace - territorial and ethno-national. They have become not only options for state registration of a space diversified by political, economic and ethno-cultural grounds, but also the subject of ideological battles, including assessments and the degree of preference of management strategies and political priorities. In the political and institutional context, the regional dimension of Russia implies an emphasis on the correlation of particular features and universalizing intentions. Such a ratio of the general and the special is included in the subject pool associated with understanding and ensuring the completeness of Russia’s sovereignty.

This essay was written starting from the assumption that there is a continuity in the Russian conservative ideology. Since the Nineteenth century, Russian conservatism has been part of a broader European phenomenon but has always abandoned this path to follow more radical ideologies and policies. In 2012, after Putin's return to presidency, many predicted that he would turn the varieties of conservatism into a pragmatic and moderate political view. The essay analyzes the main factors that pushed events in the opposite direction: excessive trust in a strong man and a strong State; permanence of a contradiction between particularism and universalism in conservative thought; carelessness towards economy; search for an identity through what is against and not for; uncertain temporal and spatial boundaries of Russian civilization-State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The aim of this research was a comparative analysis of culture beliefs about Russia’s, Eastern and Western civilizations among the youth of Moscow City. Background. Civilization identity is the a basic constituent in forming of individual’s image of the world. Understanding and acceptance of civilization’s cultural particularities helps to save personal and social identity’s stability. But understanding of differences from other civilizations and comparison with them is no less important. Study design. The study examined the relationship between the various components of the cultural representations of civilizations. The presence and nature of the relationship was checked through correlation, qualitative and content analysis. Participants. 200 people (43% of men, 57% of women) from 18 to 2 years old, students of creative universities in Moscow, studying under the training programs for future media workers. Measurements. The study was carried out by the method of questioning, including the associative method, the method of unfinished sentences, closed and open questions. Results. The research’s results proved the hypothesis that culture beliefs of Russia’s youth are qualitatively different for each of the presented civilizations. Besides, the research discovered differences related to gender. Russia’s and Eastern civilizations turned out to be the closest for male according to the research’s results, and for female — Russia’s and Western civilizations respectively. Conclusions. There is a qualitative difference between the cultural ideas of Russian, Western and Eastern civilizations among Russian youth.

Many generations of philosophers and scientists are trying to understand the nature of Russian civilization and predict its future. N. Y. Danilevsky represents Russian philosophy of the XIX century, and S. Huntington-American political science of the late XX – early XXI centuries. Each of them thinks differently about the civilizational future of Russia. And yet a dispute between them, even if it is symbolic, is quite possible. The author suggests as a method its reconstruction taking into account modern realities. Both thinkers have different understandings of Russian civilization. Danilevsky thinks of it as a family of Slavic peoples, freely United on the basis of a single cultural-historical type, which is associated with the ideas of all- slavism and Orthodoxy. And Huntington sees it as a potential center of the Orthodox world, currently torn by religious contradictions and preserving the remnants of Eastern despotism (centralization of power, bureaucratization, etc.). For Danilevsky, relations between Europe and Russia are dramatic, sometimes not in favor of the latter, which is often assigned a service and auxiliary role in this contradictory Alliance. He is opposed to transplanting alien European forms and institutions into Russian soil. In his opinion, this inevitably leads to distortion of the national life and destruction of Russian culture. On the contrary, Huntington considers Russia a «torn» civilization, unable to find stability in development and unite the Slavic countries without the help of the West. To do this, it needs to make minor concessions and moderate its geopolitical ambitions. What conclusions does the author come to when comparing the views of two completely different thinkers? First, each of them was able to Express only certain features of Russian civilization that do not affect its essential specifics. From his point of view, there are no sufficient grounds to consider Russia exclusively as a Slavic or Orthodox civilization. This is special in it, not universal. All-common is the all-humanity as the idea of gathering peoples on the basis of sophism and transculturality.

Over the course of Russia’s post-Soviet development, the Russian Orthodox Church has become a significant actor in social and political relations in Russia. This text deals with the ways in which the Russian Orthodox Church’s relationship toward the West has developed and how the Church features in the state’s official policy toward the West. This paper, which is based mainly on an analysis of primary sources (state and Church documents, media), is structured chronologically. Important landmarks in it include Vladimir Putin’s entrance into the position of president and Kirill’s entrance into the position of the Moscow patriarch. The study shows that, at present, the state and the Church rhetoric are almost identical and both focus on the defense of Russian foreign policy visions and plans.

Introduction. The paper reviews the phenomenon of perception of Western Europe as the "other" in Russian intellectual tradition. The purpose of this survey is to analyze and identify the features of Russian historiosophical consciousness in the transition of Russian civilization from the middle ages to modernity in the context of the idea of perceiving Europe as the "other".Materials and Methods. The main material of the paper is a monograph by Nizhny Novgorod researches «The problem of correlation of panhuman and national in the history of Russian thought». In addition, the material of the research is the works and articles by Russians and foreign authors focus on the subject under consideration. The article used the following methods: historical-philosophical analysis, interpretation, comparison and generalization.Results. In the medieval period the main consolidating power of society was religion, which identified the «other» as the Catholic of Western Europe. During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, the «other» is still the same West, but the revolutionary West with its slogan «Liberty, equality, fraternity». The minister of national education – the earl S.S. Uvarov, in turn, proposed the following triad – «Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality». Formation of the Russian nationality was under intense pressure from the West (the «other» of Russian civilization) during this period. The split of the Russian Orthodox Church (Raskol) in XVII century led to destruction of the Orthodox unity. The Orthodoxy was the source of sacralisation of monarchial power. However, the autocracy, having dealt a blow tothe Orthodoxy, set a course for the Western absolutism. Certain social circles, keeping up old traditions of the Orthodoxy, perceived the political authority as the «other». This led not only to the religion split (Orthodoxy), but also to the split in nationality. A pro-Western elite is being formed and, having lost its connection with Orthodoxy and traditional folk culture, it finds itself in the desert of its own historical identity. As a result, historiosophical projects, created by government and intelligentsia, caused an additional split, being unable to restore the lost unity.Discussion and Conclusions. The authors of the research managed to make systematic and detailed historical-philosophical analysis of sources and literature on this topic. The paper presents the main concepts that explain the phenomenon of Russian national identity. This makes it possible to consider and evaluate the key ideas of Russian thinkers. As a result, the authors of the research managed to make comprehensive and systematic historical-philosophical analysis of the development of the idea of Russian national identity through the prism of the concept of perception of Western Europe as the «other» of Russia.

In this article, the author focuses on a report by the National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO) on the economical, military and ideological competiveness among the states. He discusses Russian foreign policy doctrines on liberalism, political correctness and feminism. He also highlights the impact of Western philosophy on Russian civilization, as of December 2020.

In the article formation of political civilization identity of Russia is discussed. Authors open a problem of political unity of the Russian Federation through a prism of a problem of political identity

The obvious contradiction between a modern geopolitical course of the country to multi-polarity, to the Eurasian vector of development and the strategy of modernization of Russian education according the Western (European) model derivative of the idea of uni-polarity, embedding the Russian education in a valuable semantic paradigm of the Western civilization is being implemented till present. The contradiction related to the strategic geopolitical vector of development of modern Russia and the strategy of its state institutes, education, in particular, leads to the fact that in the Russian society the complex unresolved humanitarian problems will turn into a serious crisis in future. One of such challenges in Russia aggravated due to the global opposition between Russia and the USA is the problem of national unity of Russian society, the formation of Russian national identity. Variants of the pedagogical solution of the given problem actualizing the idea of multi-polarity and the paradigm of the Russian Eurasian civilization corresponding to it, in particular, the Cossacks phenomenon are considered in the article. In this aspect, the Cossack culture appears as a spiritual and ideological phenomenon of Russian civilization, as the national value, actualizing the idea of the personifying the idea of Russianness in the Eurasian vector of development of Russia, creating the traditional basis for Russian identity formation among the younger generations at present and in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to present the way in which the accomplishment of Russia's historic mission in the Soviet Union, as well as the reasons for the failure and fall of that state are viewed by Aleksandr G. Dugin. Part 1 shows the Soviet Union as an important stage in Russia's historic mission. Part 2 presents the main elements of Marxist ideology implemented in post-revolutionary Russia which stand in contradiction to the 'Russian logos' and, consequently, to Russia's civilisational mission, and which indicate the internal weakness of Marxism as an ideological foundation of the USSR. Part 3 is devoted to ideological conclusions which should be drawn by the authorities of the Russian Federation under the leadership of President Putin from the ideological weakness of the USSR in order not to repeat its fate and to enable Russia to play a crucial role in the modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Vladimir Vasil'evich Veidle (1895–1979), a philosopher and scholar of cultural study of the Silver Age and a brilliant expert on Alexander Pushkin's works. The focus is on the evolution of Veidle's views on Russian-European identity. The unique aspect of the thinker's position, especially given that his émigré works belong to what scholars have called "New Westernism," is that, in contrast to the Russian "anti-Westernizers," who defended the concept of a separate and self-sufficient "Russian civilization," Veidle believed that Russia loses nothing by being in Europe; on the contrary, it acquires its cultural identity. Veidle considered the work of Pushkin, whose "Europeanness" and "Russianness" were inseparable, as evidence of this. In his émigré works, Veidle challenged Dostoevsky's hypothesis about the "universal responsiveness" of Pushkin's art and, through profound philosophical and cultural study analysis, showed that Pushkin himself "set limits" on his own "omni-responsiveness," while remaining a principled disciple of "cultural Europeanism." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the notion of "Russian Civilization," and the ways in which it has been challenged in the last two centuries. Central to the discussion is the question of the extent to which there is a shared Slavic set of cultural beliefs, and the degree to which Russian/Slavic civilization is prepared to move from a state-centered to an individual-centered set of values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having passed through a labyrinth of social contradictions, both Russia and Iran have reached a point on their historical timelines where they have transcended the logic of development of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, Russian and Iranian modernisation reflects the interaction of universal norms and practices and specific cultural traditions. As an epistemological category, modernity can no longer be enchained in the grip of a totalising narrative. Modernity has given rise to civilisational patterns that share some core characteristics, but which unfold differently. The Russian and Iranian historical experiences reveal the need to take a much broader view of the modernisation process by placing it in the context of cultural adaptation of civilisational particularities to the challenge of modernity. The era of fixed, Euro-centric and non-reflexive modernity has reached its end, and we have, in practical terms, the emergence of 'multiple modernities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the ways to minimize the destructive consequences of socio-cultural split in terms of values that occurred in the Russian society. The study benefits from the civilizational theory.

One of Russia’s national security is the security in the spiritual realm. It is destructive tendencies in the spiritual sphere lead to such dangerous phenomena as terrorism, extremism, crime in all its manifestations and sectarianism. Destructive stereotypes introduced from the outside into the public consciousness, are one of the main threats to Russia’s national security. The answer to these processes Dol wives become, from our point of view, the approach and strategy of integration, based on the dialectics of cultural samoopyleniya, which is the only al-ternatively logic of domination and conflict. The activation of the process of integration of migration in modern Russia it is necessary to create a strategically important subject of international relations, without which it is impossible multipolar world.At the same time, the effectiveness of the provision of spiritual security and the boards of the national interests of modern Russia depends not only on the degree-penalty protection inner space of the country, but also from the realization of the spiritual expansion in the global space. This means active participation in the spiritual evolution of the world to prevent the influence of destructive forces, based on the system of antivalues and the cult of violence.In modern Russia, it may have to determine the direction common to modern civilization development. For this purpose there are all prerequisites. Russia today are able to exert an influence on the global geopolitical processes, using their cultural, historical, spiritual, natural, political, and other resources.

The article presents a report of the conference on the history and culture of Russian Germans in post-Soviet archives held at the Universität Passau in Passau, Germany, from May 4-6, 2017. Topics of the conference include Mennonites, a collection of photographs belonging to German-Russian photographer Carl Oswald Bulla, and the development of German culture in Kazakhstan.

In this article, the author asks the following questions: what is the role of an interethnic family in modern Russian society, which has entered a new stage of civilisation development that is characterised by the domination of ethnic markers in the formation of an identification matrix of various people of Russia? Is the interethnic family a peaceful and consenting loud-hailer in a society that has lost its culture of interethnic communication? Is it necessary for the interethnic family to ensure its safety for Russia to synthesise the cultures of the West and the East? The author attempts to answer these questions by examining the North Caucasus, which is the region with the most intensive interethnic interaction and interethnic intensity The findings concerning the interethnic family in the conditions of the ethnicisation of all social processes in this region and in Russia as a whole confirm the results of the author’s sociological research that was conducted in the Republic of Dagestan in 2012 — 2013. The author concludes that the increase of an ethnic factor in the lives of the people of the North Caucasus and the difficulties of the interethnic adaptation of ethnically mixed families in this region considerably reduce the status of such families in comparison with monoethnic families in the mass consciousness of the North Caucasian people, who are focused on the preservation of traditional activities and interactions.

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Documenta Praehistorica is the property of Documenta Praehistorica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the notion of “Russian Civilization,” and the ways in which it has been challenged in the last two centuries. Central to the discussion is the question of the extent to which there is a shared Slavic set of cultural beliefs, and the degree to which Russian/Slavic civilization is prepared to move from a state-centered to an individual-centered set of values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the author's views on the neo-Eurasian identity of Russia as of May 2016. The meaning and essence of Russia's Eurasianism is examined which arose from political and ideological discussions after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Also discussed are Russia's positive characteristics, criticisms on the Eurasianism concept, self-awareness of Russia's ethnicities, and Russian culture and civilization.

In The Monastery, Prilepin's political agenda recedes into the background and Prilepin the writer comes to the fore; politics is present in the novel only to lend creative integrity to the piece: politics is a derivative of time, while man arises from eternity. The Monastery offers a choice of alternative historic interpretations, each of them somewhat subjective, and encourages the readers to come to their own conclusions, much in the manner of Voltaire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Class structure, class inequality, and class analysis are central to understanding contemporary Russian politics and society. And yet Russians themselves--from social scientists, to political leaders, to everyday Russians--have struggled to come to grips with the concept of class, which became a taboo topic following the collapse of communism. In recent years, that has started to change. Russian social scientists have placed great emphasis on defining the Russian "middle class," in a search both for a non-Marxist conception of class and for a social group with the potential to lead Russia toward a more liberal future. Yet the middle class concept remains fuzzy, and the political aspirations for the group have been only partially realized. Meanwhile, much of the rest of Russian society retains a more traditional view of class and class conflict, as reflected in various political struggles and even in popular culture, such as Russian film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the eighteenth century, Russians who wanted to be successful in politics, administration, business or science had to learn the German language. For several decades German was the most studied foreign language in Russia. How can we explain this fact? In the course of the modernization of Russia initiated by Peter the Great, thousands of German specialists came to St Petersburg, Moscow and other major Russian cities. Important areas such as politics, life at the royal court, administration, military matters, trade and especially science and the education system therefore became bilingual. In order to illustrate the importance of German in eighteenth-century Russia this article shows in which social domains German was used and makes clear who found it useful or even essential to learn German and why. Particular attention will be paid to the domain of science, learning and education, where German probably had its most lasting impact. As for the use of German as a spoken language, its role as a medium of instruction in educational institutions will be examined. The article will also deal with German as a subject of study in Russian schools. It will consider how many pupils learned German - or French or Latin - and why they chose a specific foreign language. Numerous primary sources such as curricula, time-tables, school reports, teachers' and learners' assessments, school enrolment figures and teachers' registers and textbooks are used in order to provide a statistical basis for conclusions about the position of foreign languages at specific Russian educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers analysis and comparison of the fiction and socio-political thought of Aleksandr Fomich Vel'tman (1800–70) within the context of Romantic discussions of the status and importance of national consciousness and identity. Beginning with a presentation of the origins of this topic in Germany and its migration to Russian soil in the thought of Chaadaev, it proceeds to show how Vel'tman's fiction and thought responds to previous models of Russian character and its importance within the family of nations. In this way it endeavours to contribute both to our conceptualization of Russian identity as it was viewed in the first half of the nineteenth century and to our understanding of Vel'tman's works themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mari is one of the endangered Finno-Ugric languages located in the territory of the Russian Federation. The danger of extinction of Mari is influenced by both objective and subjective factors. In the current paper, the issue under investigation is the impact of the Mari traditional religion and folk culture on language maintenance. Because of continuously reduced institutional support, the status of the Mari language has decreased significantly in the last 10 years. The favourable development of traditional culture has brought with it an increase in the number of native speaking people within the Mari El region (Russia). It is slightly observed in some spheres (social and cultural) and almost unnoticeable in others (political, economic). The mechanism of impact of Mari traditional religion and culture is characterized as psychological. It gives reason to believe that the chances for the preservation of the Mari language are reasonably good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]