Reflecting on the question of Russia's place in history and in modern world, various philosophers one way or another considered Russia within the framework of the East-West scheme. At the same time, Russia is attributed either to the East or the West, or it is recognized as a special country, neither Western nor Eastern.

In the history of Russian thought for the latter case, several independent concepts of the East-West problem are known:

• G. Plekhanov believed that Russia was, as it were, between East and West, leaning first in one direction, then in the other.
• N. Berdyaev declared it East-West or West-East.
• Young predicted her great destiny: Russia must unite East and West on the basis of true Christianity.
• According to the Eurasianists, Russia forms a special world, a "third force" that is quite similar to both the West and the East, but does not depend on them.

Therefore, in order to navigate all these diverse points of view and understand true position Russia in the world, it is necessary to unequivocally establish the meaning of the original concepts and terms, to separate the boundaries of the concepts of "West", "East" and their correlation with each other.

In the view of Europeans, the East has always been in a certain opposition to the West. The mysterious and unfamiliar East was woven from contradictions - they spoke, on the one hand, of its constancy and high spirituality, and, on the other, of stagnation and slavery. Against the background of the “East”, the originality of the West was more clearly visible, in fact, in the process of understanding the East, a Western European understanding was also formed.

The "East-West" paradigm helped the Europeans to form the very European self-consciousness. Therefore, the concepts of "East" and "West" influence our worldview - voluntarily or involuntarily, regardless of our critical or dogmatic attitude towards them.

First theoretical concepts"East" and "West" were used in his writings by the philosopher G. Hegel. Under the name "East" it combines three cultural and historical formations:

• Chinese, including China,

• Indian, which includes India,

• and the Middle East, which includes the ancient civilizations of Asia, North Africa: Persia, including the people of Zarathustra, Assyria, Media, Iran, Babylon, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Egypt, as well as the Islamic world.

Hegel's "West" consisted of two civilizations that formed in the north of the Mediterranean - Roman and Greek. At the same time, it should be noted that there was no place in the Hegelian system of Russia.

Thus, the "West" in Hegel's philosophy had two meanings:

1. broad, including ancient times and the Christian culture of European peoples;
2. narrow, including only the Christian world.

These interpretations have their supporters and opponents.

“Localists” (N.Ya. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee), rejecting the “West-East” paradigm, considered only the Western European world to be the “West”. E. Husserl called Ancient Greece"spiritual home" of the West.

K. Jaspers offered a compromise point of view. He considers Western civilization one of many local ones, but notes its special role in world history, especially in the era of modern times, and points out that Western culture is the spiritual heir to Greek, Jewish and Roman cultures.

Jaspers introduces the concept of "axial time", universal for all mankind, criticizing the Hegelian "world axis", associated exclusively with Christianity. But since Christianity itself was the basis only for Western civilization, to choose it as the boundary of this "axial time" for the whole world is incorrect. The desired universality, and with it the fullness of being, existed before, for example, in Eastern cultures. Jaspers calls the “amazing era” the time between the 8th and 2nd centuries BC, when their prophets appear in various parts of the world: in China - Confucius and Lao Tzu, in Persia and Iraq - Zarathustra, in India - Buddha, in Palestine the Old Testament is being created, philosophy is actively developing in Greece. At this time, a person overcomes his local thinking and realizes himself. But people did not unite into a single formation, but several centers of world religions and political paradigms were formed.

It is worth noting that Jaspers practically does not use the concept of "East". He considers China and India as independent cultural worlds along with the West. In the broad concept of "West" it includes not only Western culture II millennium, but also the culture begun by the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Crete-Mycenaean civilizations, continued in antiquity by the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Jews, completed in the Christian era by Byzantium, Russia, Europe, America and Islamic civilizations. In addition, the West in the concept of Jaspers is seen as the cradle of ideas about freedom, democracy, philosophy, science.

The East-West-Russia Problem in the History of Philosophical Thought

The question of Russia's place in the East-West-Russia paradigm was first raised in Philosophical Letters.

• Westerners argued that Russia is part of European culture, i.e. West. The Slavophiles, on the other hand, believed that Russia was "an original spiritual formation."
• There was also a third point of view - the concept of K. Leontiev.

Great support for the ideas of the Slavophiles was given by the “pochvennik”. Not recognizing the East-West paradigm, he developed the idea of ​​having independent cultural and historical types. Russian culture, according to Danilevsky, just represented such a special type of culture.

Almost the entire 19th century in Russian philosophical thought the idea of ​​Russia's "specialness" in a number of other civilizations dominated, which influenced the formation of the national Russian civilizational and historical self-consciousness.

This process is embodied in the famous formulas:

• « The history of Russia requires a different thought, a different formula ”(A. Pushkin),

• “Russia cannot be understood with the mind” (F. Tyutchev)

• “Rus, where are you going, give me an answer?” (N. Gogol),

• "Why can't we accommodate last word His [Christ]?" (F. Dostoevsky).

Proceeding from the fact that Russian culture is Christian, Westerners put on the third world-historical stage Slavic peoples along with the German ones. The Slavophils, pointing to cultures, contrasted Russia with Western Europe.

Chaadaev believed that Russian culture can combine both reason and imagination, so Russia can become a kind of bridge between the West and the East. He calls Russia the "third force" in history.

The introduction of Russia into the Hegelian triad of "China, India, the Middle East" allows for two theoretical possibilities:

1) the preservation of the triad with the placement of Russia "inside" one of the elements;

2) reducing the elements to two and introducing Russia into the triad instead of one of them.

The theoretical priority clearly has the second possibility. However, in philosophy XIX century, the idea of ​​Russian originality dominated, therefore, in that era, Russian thinkers used the first.

The second possibility was used in his research by Vl. Solovyov, proposing the formula "East-West-Russia" in the "Philosophical Principles of Integral Knowledge".

Vl. Solovyov proposed the idea of ​​a tripartite division of history. He singled out three stages of world-historical development. Two already, according to the philosopher, we have already passed. At the first stage, the "face" of humanity was the East. After that followed the Christian frontier and the second step, where the West played the leading role in history. In this scheme, neither antiquity, nor Byzantium, nor Ancient Rus' Vl. Solovyov does not consider cultural and political formations as significant.

According to Solovyov:

• The East symbolizes the "inhuman God",
• The West is "godless man".

The confrontation between the West and the East ends at the third stage, characterized by the establishment of true Christianity. The bearer of a new mentality can only be a young people who are not connected with either the West or the East, for example, Russia.

Russian civilization: West or East? Types of civilizations

1. Ed. Balabanova A.I. - ed. with rev. Banks and banking. Textbook, Peter: Unity, 2005;

2. Ed. Lavrushin O.I. Banking.- M .: Banking and exchange information centre, 1999

3. Ed. Krolivetskaya L.P., Tikhomirova E.V. Banking. Lending activities of commercial banks. Textbook: "KnoRus", 2009;

4. Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On banks and banking activities in the Republic of Kazakhstan".

Geographical, climatic and mental factors of Russian history

As V.O. Klyuchevsky, "nature is the cradle of the people." Indeed, it is the climate, soil properties, humidity and similar factors that largely shape the standards of work, the culture of work (especially in agricultural areas), and hence the mentality of the people.

The climate on the territory of the East European Plain is sharply continental: severe, with a very long cold winter and short cool summers. The agricultural work season starts from the end of April and ends in mid-September, i.e. very short. The yield is low most of The soil is generally unsuitable for cultivation. Therefore, the peasant was forced to work at the limit of his capabilities. In addition, every 12-15 years, nature brought some “surprises” like crop failure ... Thus, the Russian work ethic was formed: you need to work a lot, hard, be able to do everything, but irresponsibility is revealed, as well as a tremendous inability to work systematically , evenly.

Natural conditions demanded collective efforts. Therefore, the Russians have a high mentality of the team.

because of large territories developed national pride.

Since Russia is not surrounded on all sides by sea, mountains, or other obstacles, it was very open to invasions. In addition, there were almost no loyal states nearby. The consequence is that a large part of Russian history is military history.

Long distance of the country from the centers European civilization led to a lag in cultural development. Russia did not have a base of European culture - antiquity. The country was isolated, there was stagnation.

Also, due to the vastness of the territory and as a result of colonization, the country is multinational, multi-confessional, which created certain problems in mutual understanding, but at the same time brought up tolerance and tolerance in people. worldly wisdom. christian religion was brought to Rus' from Byzantium, so its eastern version, Orthodoxy, was adopted. And when in 1054 Christianity broke up into Orthodoxy and Catholicism, Russia remained faithful to the traditions of the “big brother”. And in general, Orthodoxy is “fidelity”, “orthodox”. The culture of Russia is mainly religious, based on traditions and its own, unlike any other mentality.

Russian civilization: West or East? Types of civilizations

Civilization is a human community, which during certain period time has stable special features in the socio-political organization, economy and culture (science, technology, art, etc.), common spiritual values ​​and ideals, mentality.

Among the so-called Western countries countries are currently Western Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and sometimes also South Africa, Israel, Japan, etc.

Currently to countries of Eastern Europe include: Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia (up to 22% of the territory), Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Ukraine

As for Russia's attitude to Western or Eastern civilizational types, we can say that Russia does not fully fit into either Western or Eastern types of development. Russia has a huge territory and therefore Russia is a historically formed conglomerate of peoples belonging to different types development, united by powerful, centralized state with a Great Russian core. Russia, geopolitically located between two powerful centers of civilizational influence - the East and the West, includes peoples developing both in the Western and Eastern versions.

As a result, since its inception, Russia has absorbed a huge religious and cultural diversity peoples living on its territory and adjacent to it. For a long time, the development of Russia was influenced by states of both eastern (Mongolia, China) and western (during the reforms of Peter I a lot was borrowed from the Western type of development) civilizational types. Some scientists distinguish a separate Russian type of civilization. So it is impossible to say exactly which civilizational type Russia belongs to.

The concepts of "culture of the East" and "culture of the West" are very arbitrary. Figuratively speaking, the East (which is usually understood as Asia) and the West (represented by Europe and North America) are two branches of the same tree, each developing in its own direction, at the same time, in parallel, but in different ways. None of them rises above the other. They have a certain similarity, but there are also enough differences. How are they different? Let's try to figure it out.

Definition

Culture of the East- the culture of such countries as China, India, Japan, as well as other Asian states, is distinguished by stability, traditionality, and inviolability.

Western culture- European culture and North America, embodying dynamic image life, rapid development, including in the technological sphere.

Comparison

The man of the West, unlike the man of the East, has his own mentality, his own views on life, being, nature and much more. The cultures of the East and the West differ in religious, philosophical, scientific and other issues. The main cultural differences between East and West are presented in the table.

Findings site

1. The culture of the East is characterized by a stable historical development, The West is moving forward jerkily.
2. Western culture is characterized by a dynamic way of life, the previous system of values ​​is destroyed - another one arises. Eastern culture is characterized by inviolability, non-resistance, stability. New trends are harmoniously integrated into the existing system.
3. AT Eastern cultures There are many religions living side by side. Christianity dominates in the West.
4. Eastern culture is based on ancient customs, foundations. The West tends to loosen traditions.
5. The West is characterized by scientific, technological, rational knowledge peace. The East is irrational.
6. Human Western world divorced from nature, he commands her. The man of the East is merged with nature.

Traktina Tatiana 07/23/2015 at 17:00

controversy about where Russia belongs civilizationally (to the East or the West) have been conducted for so long that they are fed up with the order. Moreover, both camps find such arguments in the history of Russia that a feeling is created that everyone is right. And this is even more confusing. About it Pravda. Rusaid the well-known television columnist, historian Andrey Svetenko.

- Andrey Sergeevich, Rus' has been oriented towards the West since ancient times. What played here leading role: adoption of Christianity or political, trade interests?

Of course, the most important, backbone, mental moment is the adoption of Christianity. This automatically drew the country and people into the orbit of Western civilization. Moreover, Rus' adopted Christianity even before the split into Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

This, of course, laid the vector of development in the direction of Byzantium and Europe. Naturally, the concept of Moscow as the third Rome confirms this and builds on this. Of course, initially there were also objective economic factors.

The incorporation of ancient Russian principalities is indicative. The moment of linking the economy to European processes is the famous transit route "from the Varangians to the Greeks." This shows the involvement of Ancient Rus' in global economic processes, saying modern language about events thousands of years ago.

But this process gradually faded for a number of reasons: expansion from the East, the defeat of the crusaders in the Middle East, then the decline and fall of Byzantium. All this strategically changed the situation in the East of Europe, from the point of view of its involvement in economic trade processes.

You can list the names of ancient Russian princesses who were married to French kings. This is a normal process. Dynastic marriages under Yaroslav the Wise and others Kyiv princes indicator that Ancient Rus' of course was organic integral part quite clearly traceable European mosaic.

The most interesting thing is that in the 15-17 centuries, including the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Europeanization continued. Then there were the great geographical discoveries, and Russia was also involved in the orbit of global international relations.

Under the sign of European standards and values, various trade missions and representations appeared here, and merchant ties developed. The British began searching for the northern sea ​​route. As a result, they learned about the port of Arkhangelsk.

Serious trade began to be carried out through him under Ivan the Terrible. At the same time, the model of statehood was borrowed from us at that time, mostly from the East. In Russia, there is always a turning point and there is a discussion: the state for society or society and people for the state.

In the root sense, of course, Russia is an organic part of the European world. But borderlines lead to the fact that theories of explaining some kind of transitivity, intermediateness are born: Eurasia, an attempt to connect two opposite vectors of development, discovering in the process an understanding of oneself as not just a bridge between them, but something peculiar and unique, and for which there are no common remedies for crises and problems are not suitable. Tyutchev very accurately reflected this:

"You can't understand Russia with your mind, you can't measure it with a common yardstick: It has become special in Russia - One can only believe in Russia."

This interferes, it seems to me, because it is high time to understand Russia with the mind, and this is now the place to be. The most interesting thing is that economic processes, the development of Russia from antiquity to modern times took place, economic policy and practice were built according to understandable, sane laws, which were also in Europe.

We are no different in this respect. This is, for example, said by Alexander Bessolitsyn, Doctor of Economics, who conducted very interesting studies.

The only thing is that for the sake of the concept of strong individual power, there was a process of consolidating class differences in society, and not an attempt to combine polyphony, the concept of creating a certain system that would take into account the interests of different classes, which is quite obvious.

The line of domination prevailed with the transfer of the powers of an arbiter to the sovereign, on the basis of which, by definition, he must be good and correct, and the boyars - bad, and everyone else can be bad if they raise an uprising. Bulat, Razin and Pugachev, peasants and Cossacks may want something wrong.

And it turns out a paradox. Everything that is imbued in the idea with unity, artelism, collectivism, on closer examination suddenly reveals the personal, private interests of a representative of each of the estates. And in this sense it is not correct to think that the Russian peasant is a community member, a collective farmer at heart.

He had very strong instincts, private property instincts were always developed, and this always manifested itself in his socio-political situation. It was the lack of opportunities to implement it that led to many unrest.

- Asia lagged far behind Europe and the United States, but in last years a leap was made there, which the West never dreamed of. Why didn't we reorient ourselves to the East in time? We are we can interact very effectively.

The scale of growth is impressive, but one must not forget about the low starting position, not to confuse the concepts of the volume and scale of the economy with the indicator of growth rates. You had a ruble, now you have two, your growth rate is 100 percent.

I had a million, it became a million and two rubles, I have an insignificant fraction of a percent growth. Now there are the first serious problems in the Chinese economy.

It is necessary to consume what the Chinese have already produced by the Chinese themselves, to develop internal freedoms. To some extent, this will lead to the degeneration of this socialist society into some new qualitative state, which the Chinese authorities are trying to prevent.

India is also showing strong growth rates. There, too, there is a huge scale, more than a billion people, vast territories and resources. There are three traditional factors of production: land, labor and capital.

In the East, the labor factor prevails: skill, ability, willingness to work, availability work force, which for relatively little money is ready to make products of acceptable quality.

There are certain resources in the earth, minerals. Now there is capital.

But the most important in our time is a new factor - know-how, high-tech, innovation, that is, intellectual potential. We need to work more actively in this direction, not to choose between East and West, but proceed from the realities of economic expediency.

Even the ancient Greeks thought about the fact that in addition to their culture there is another one - the eastern one. Those who were in the East understood that the eastern type of culture differed significantly from the western. This world was perceived as opposite, different, where everything is organized differently, not always friendly and open.
Subsequently, it turned out that European culture represent the countries of Europe, America, and the east - Asian countries.
However, the principle of territorial division is not essential here when distinguishing between two types of cultures. Cultural characteristics also have different methods knowledge of the world. The social and political order also differ.
A whole science - cultural studies - has taken up the study of the existence of Eastern culture, and it pays no less attention to the disclosure of this concept than western style culture.
Especially vividly reflects all the facets of Eastern culture, literature, as a form of artistic creativity. It was literature that always showed both cultures in their direct opposition and dissimilarity to each other. For example, the famous English writer, the poet R. Kipling wrote that east and west "will never meet."
Scientists of the 19th century discovered new territories of oriental culture - India, Indonesia. It has been found out that Eastern civilizations are older than European ones.
The initial idea of ​​​​oriental culture was subsequently rethought, there was a connection to scientific foundations being.
The famous philosopher M. Weber came to the conclusion that the civilizations of India, China, the Middle East are the basic civilizations of the East. Eastern countries live according to the principles that are perceived in the rest of the world as "normal" - not going beyond the ordinary, not creating anything brilliant. In this connection, the East appears to be a traditional, long-established world, unable to compete with the West.
However, Orientalists are not so categorical in their statements. They respect the culture of the East and say that the originality and antiquity of the Eastern culture bring their fruits to the world order.
It was from the East that the ancestral home of man arose, thanks to which he began his gradual settlement around the world. In this sense, Eastern culture is recognized as the main one.
In this type of culture, the two main components - religion and culture - almost coincide. This kind of complex combines its unique secret ideas, as well as beliefs, sacred actions, as well as a set of ethical standards, morality, law and order. These constants govern the relationship of believers.
Thus, the typical originality of the eastern type of culture is the main one in characterizing this type.
Eastern type culture has also different kinds subcultures. They also have a long history of origin and development, as a result of which they are subjected to careful study.
The first type of Eastern culture is the Confucian-Taoist culture. It originated in China, in its main Chinese ethnic community.
Honored in the first place supreme virtue, as well as the power hierarchy and ethics. Religion in Eastern culture is canonized - everyone worships Allah, his authority is unshakable. Taoists treat the problem of life and death philosophically and with the understanding that there is no escape from fate, each person is destined by fate - how he will live and how he will leave the mortal world.
The second type of Eastern culture is the Indo-Buddhist type.
This religion, unlike the previous one, merges religion and philosophy into one whole. At the heart of the Buddha's teaching is the concept of moral standards human behavior. Only by measuredly contemplating the world, living peacefully and without fuss, a person is able to live to the truth. Reflecting on his actions, a person is able to approach the Almighty.
It is common for Buddhism to go to a monastery often, or at least lead an ascetic life. At the same time, it is necessary to renounce the world and choose metaphysics as a way of knowing this world.
The next type of Eastern culture is the Islamic type. This type has appeared relatively recently. It is characterized by a less ramified theistic structure - Islamists believe in only one god, Allah. In this culture, the cult of human actions, predetermined from above, is at its height. All life in Islam is subject to the laws of religion, specially authorized people make sure that these laws are carried out. According to Islamists, only a believer deserves bliss in paradise.
So, all types of Eastern culture correspond to the following parameters:
- stability, so it develops more evenly, without jerks.
- a close relationship with nature, a sense of the universe.
- oriental people- adherents of traditions.
- reverent attitude towards religion.
All these reasons make the eastern type of culture unique.