Any ethnic unit (clan, tribe, people, nation) is manifested in history by a certain type of behavior. This type itself is determined to a great extent by the character of the people, or, rather, by its psychology, “soul building” (basic needs and interests, traditional preferences and habits, initial moral norms, initial attitudes in communication, etc.). The psychology of peoples, the nature of their feelings, dominant emotions - this is “ characters»Their stories. If we understand the psychology, the “soul” of a people, its inherent basic values ​​(“supervalues”), one can understand and predict the nature of its relations with neighboring peoples, its historical aspirations and goals, its position and role in world history, in the fate of humanity in general.

No management of the state or the people can be effective if the “governors” (monarchs, presidents, parliaments, just various “leaders”) do not understand and do not take into account the mental structure, the “soul” of their people or a specific social group. Well-planned social, political, military, economic and other actions, including those in international relations, fail if statesmen or politicians do not feel the deep attitude of people to these actions, their internal psychological attitudes or assessments. This is especially true of the Russian people with its deep and subtle mental organization. For example, in the last two decades, the Russian people have been dying out, scattering, do not want to have children, stealing, drinking, swearing not because of lack of culture, ignorance or poverty (thank God, no one dies from hunger in our country, the high general education of the people is obvious), but because the vast majority of people do not psychologically perceive and do not accept the way of life, more precisely the socio-economic system, the type of social relations that, willingly or unwillingly, is being built in the country.

It is very difficult to understand what the psychology of a Russian person is, or rather, the psychology of "Russianness". “You can't understand Russia with your mind, you can't measure it with a common yardstick, it’s special to become, you can only believe in Russia.” This deep thought of the poet-philosopher F. Tyutchev has become for many a widespread explanation of the “mysterious Russian soul”, that universal miracle, or, according to some, (starting with P. Chaadaev), some kind of absurdity that Russia is in the world space.

How can one explain that small and clearly deprived of natural resources peoples like the Belgians, the Dutch, not to mention the Germans, the French or the British for centuries have been living in prosperity, prosperity and order, while the Russians are always tormented, starving, and suffering? “Show me such a monastery, I have never seen such a corner, wherever your sower and keeper, wherever the Russian peasant moans” (N. Nekrasov).

For most of the 20th century, the Russians were eagerly building a "bright tomorrow" - communism. They paid for a "happy future" with hardships, health, and the lives of millions. Considerable successes have been achieved, including in the economic, cultural and moral development of the people. But in the end, Russia turned out to be inhabited, although equal and educated, but poor, cut off from world civilization, spiritually crushed by people.

After 20 years of democratization and liberalization, the country has become many times weaker, lost 20 percent of its territory, and lost centuries of conquests. In terms of the level of national well-being, Russia has steadily “settled” in the 50-60th place in the world. The Russian nation is dying out in the literal sense of the word (in many regions, the death rate is two to three times higher than the birth rate). Every year about a million of our fellow citizens leave the country. Millions of abandoned children roam the streets, wild drunkenness and drug addiction are typical. The number of suicides in the country exceeds the number of those killed, we are in first place in the world in terms of female and child alcoholism, and in third place in terms of female crime. In the village, about half of the inhabitants live below the poverty line. Again "hungry, poor Russia groans"? (A.S. Pushkin). But everything seemed to be correctly copied from the civilized West. Tens of thousands of foreign advisers taught us how to create economics, politics, sex

What is it all the same? Are the Russians stupid? Are the Russians lazy? Do they always drink and walk? Are the rulers of Russia brainless and stupid?

A considerable number of scientists - sociologists, historians, philosophers, just thinking people both in the past and in the present they have tried to offer their understanding of this enormous complexity of the issue. Certain aspects of the social and moral character of the Russian person, and the peculiarities of his psychology, were correctly ascertained. But the main thing was not caught.

From our point of view, the most important indicator of the psychology of any nation, its deep initial self-awareness, is its intuitive understanding, the determination of the location of their "I" in relation to their social environment, other "I". This is the focus national psychology people, the most intimate base point of reference in all behavior of a person of any nationality, his original primordial anthropological sense of self.

A Russian person always feels like a part of something greater than himself. Russian psychologically, spiritually "is present" not only "within himself", as a "Westerner" (for example, a German, French, Englishman), but also "outside himself." The center of his spiritual existence is outside of him. A Russian is born not only and even not so much for himself as for another, and he sees the meaning of life in serving another1. This explains the most important features of the behavior and destinies of a huge number of Russian people.

Due to the limited space in this case, you can pay attention to only a few of them. This is, first of all, the breadth of the Russian soul, noted by all foreigners, interest in the whole world, accessibility a huge number phenomena and events that, it would seem, do not directly concern him. (A Swiss or a Norwegian, for example, is mainly interested in the state and fate of his own country). The Russian, on the other hand, cares about everything. The Russian feels himself a citizen of the world, and responsible for the fate of this world. This is a specific Russian "messianism". (In the past, this is how the ancient Egyptians, ancient Romans felt themselves). From here, the amazing openness of the Russian, his kindness, benevolence to another, a desire to serve, to help him, opened up.

Hence the well-known tendency of the Russian to speak "heart to heart", to feel the "heartbeat" of another, to understand him, to sympathize, to share his grief. (Multiplied by the excessive Russian emotionality, these traits become part of life, part of the main needs of the Russian).

Hence his amazing ability, desire, even the need to “die for the people,” for someone else. Therefore, for him the feat of Christ, who accepts death for people, is so attractive.

By virtue of these parties of his basic psychology, the Russian is "not self-sufficient." He always lacks himself. It is not enough to satisfy one's own needs. A Russian always needs a big common goal. Without it, life is meaningless. (The communists perfectly caught this when proposing a common great goal - communism). Unfortunately, now the Russian people, the Russian society, do not have such a common big goal. And the Russians for the most part feel a terrible emptiness, the meaninglessness of existence. Since the Russians perceive and demand everything in a maximal way, it is understandable why the Russians perceived the destruction of Russia as a great power as a terrible misfortune, defeat, tragedy, shame.

Here you can also see the reason for one of the unpleasant and dangerous manifestations of "Russianness". When communicating with others (especially with foreigners), Russian very often perceives not himself, but another as a “starting point”. The fact is that the feeling that you are not the “master” of yourself, but your “master” is something more than you, gives rise to a feeling of your own imperfection, “partial”, inferiority. Self-esteem drops sharply. Therefore, a Russian surrounded by, as it seems to him, “significant people” is not confident in himself. This is a well-known all over the world, quite typical for many Russians, a feeling of their own incompleteness, even inferiority, the dependence of a Russian on someone else's authority. (“I am Russian, therefore, I am a fool, therefore it smells from me” - A. I. Herzen). Hence the groveling, ingratiating himself, groveling before every "lord", fear of all bosses, lack of "moral courage", as Napoleon called this quality. “A nation of slaves,” as N. G. Chernyshevsky contemptuously said about Russians in this connection.

Therefore, the Russian should be more often encouraged, praised, and inspired (like any insecure person). He really needs a strong, authoritative, just leader ("the king-father"). His psychological type requires authoritarian control. "Democratic" and especially "conniving" type of leadership causes a violation of internal balance, decentralization of psychological attitudes, loss of moral standards and, ultimately, a state of anomie. Loss of relevance social norms and demands, deviant and self-destructive behavior is growing, the number of suicides is increasing, etc. Kind, affection, praise from a Russian can achieve almost anything. (In particular, this prompts many social psychologists to assert that the Russian people have a "woman's soul").

Russian is very sensitive to moral judgments and therefore is not protected against "moral banditry". Easily falls for socially significant slogans and appeals. He really wants to respect someone and he himself really needs respect. Moral purity a Russian person, his initial need to believe in something significant, in goodness, in nobility, the need to serve something sublime, to help someone often makes him a victim of the most outright deception, hypocrisy, meanness. He is amazingly open and trusting in the opinions of people who seem to him to be honest, respected, authoritative. (“The Russian people are gullible,” noted N. Karamzin). The Russian man is a godsend for any unprincipled politician, for any clever businessman in the media. It is this quality that makes it easy to manipulate the Russian electorate in all sorts of elections.

The greatest quality of the Russian type of self-realization is the ability to be content with little in meeting material needs. This quality of his makes Russians amazingly capable of resisting in hard times, in times of war, famine, natural disasters. During the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, entire villages and regions for more than one month ate only swans, oak bark, acorns, and nettles. And they survived.

But this ability to be content with little, unfortunately, allows Russians to be content with a minimum of comfort and convenience even in good, peaceful times. Hence the reasoning about the laziness of the Russians. That is why "a Russian person is a bad worker." (V.I. Lenin). He does not need to achieve the highest quality under normal conditions (Let's recall Nikolai Gogol's "Rus-Troika": how..."). Therefore, the destiny of Russia, as pre-revolutionary publicists mockingly repeated, is “to wear hats rejected by Europe,” that is, the destiny to be late, to imitate. And again to assert that "culture comes from the West." But it is precisely the freedom of spirit, freedom from small efforts to improve one's life, to “polish the polished” that gives the Russian people the opportunity to create amazing masterpieces of culture, to make amazing inventions. The Russian spirit is incredibly creative. The Russian people are one of the most creative peoples the world.

Europeans and Americans, both in the past and in the present, are most amazed (and frightened) by the heroism and dedication of the Russian people, their invincibility. Indeed, as history shows, it is impossible to defeat Russia. This is not blind fanaticism or mindlessly following orders. Due to the original features of his worldview, a Russian person dying feels that he does not die at all, because that great common - and, above all, the Fatherland, the Motherland - for which he lives and of which he is a part - is immortal. Indeed, such a people cannot be defeated.

Of course, here it is not possible to note and evaluate many other qualities of "Russianness" in all their complexity and contradictions. They are correlated, interdetermined, complementary. But ultimately their origins are precisely in the indicated deep properties of Russian psychology. Only taking them into account in various spheres of social and public policy can finally lead Russia to its desired historical goals.

Notes (edit)

Perhaps in this one can see the historical (and biological) purpose of the Russian ethnos. It is the representatives of the Homo sapiens species, which differ in such anthropo-psychological indicators, that can be designed to save the species (humanity) in critical situations.

I Romanov Readings."Romanov collection" ... Kostroma. May 29-30, 2008.

Russia is a special country facing global challenges; the country chosen by God. This idea takes its origins from the old idea of ​​Moscow - the Third Rome. This idea was stained with lies and falsehood, but something truly Russian was reflected in all this. Both an individual and a whole nation throughout life cannot be accompanied by a feeling of a special great vocation without a special purpose.

Russia is still unclear and vague to the West. It is not given its due, is not considered according to its dignity, but nevertheless it is drawn after this unknown, contradicting itself barbaric-cultural essence. If now the Slavs as a race do not play such a role as Russian diplomacy and do not occupy such a position as the Latin or Germanic races, then this is what the war should change; The processes taking place within the national spirit will spill out onto the world arena. Statehood is completely absent in the Russian people. Anarchy is what is inherent in Russians. The intelligentsia and that aspired to freedom and truth, excluding statehood as such in principle. Russia is a submissive, feminine land. Its people do not want a free state, they want freedom from the state. These properties became the basis for Slavophil philosophy.

Although imperialism does not favor the Russian people, it nevertheless devotes all efforts to its creation and strengthening like a weak-willed slave. And this is the secret - how did such an anarchic and apolitical people create such a huge empire?

2 conflicting statements:

1) Europeans are nationalists, Russians, in this regard, are absolute liberals who consider Nazism to be evil.

2) Russia - a country saturated with Nazism to the marrow of its bones, believes that the real church is only in Russia.

There are countless antitheses, because Russia is spiritually boundless. Soloviev stands up in defense of the church - the only weapon against the nationalist antithesis.

The essence of the antithesis is that Russia is a country of merchants, money-gamblers, conservative to the point of immobility, a country of bureaucrats who never cross the boundaries of a closed and dead bureaucratic kingdom, a country of peasants who do not want anything but land, and who accept Christianity outwardly and selfishly. Russia does not like beauty, is afraid of beauty as a luxury, does not want any redundancy. It is almost impossible to budge Russia, it’s so heavy, so inert, so lazy, so immersed in matter, so humbly putting up with its life.

So where does this inconsistency come from? The root of these deep contradictions lies in the disconnection between the masculine and the feminine in the Russian spirit and the Russian character. War is the hope for a way out of this vicious circle.

The author writes that Western Europe and Western culture will become immanent for Russia; Russia will finally become Europe, and it is then that it will be spiritually distinctive and spiritually independent. A world war, in the bloody cycle of which all parts of the world and all races are already involved, should, in bloody torments, give birth to a firm consciousness of all-human unity. Culture will cease to be so exclusively European and will become world, universal. The world war brings life to the problem of Russian messianism. Messianic consciousness is the recognition of God's chosen people who will save the world. But, after the appearance of Christ, messianism in the Hebrew sense becomes already impossible for the Christian world. Christianity does not admit national exclusivity and national pride, it condemns the consciousness that my people are higher than all peoples and the only religious people. Christianity is the final affirmation of the unity of mankind, the spirit of all-humanity and universality.

Freedom to travel. Russian culture can only be finite, only going beyond the boundaries of culture.

About the "eternal woman" in the Russian soul

Rozanov is now the first Russian stylist. Everything that he wrote - there is a huge biological stream, to which it is impossible to stick with any criteria and assessments. Rozanov is some kind of primordial biology, experienced as a mystic. For him, the very stream of life in its power is God. In Rozanov there is so much characteristically Russian, true Russian. He is a brilliant exponent of some aspect of Russian nature, of the Russian element. It is only possible in Russia. In the very depths of the Russian character, there is eternal - womanish, not eternally - feminine, but eternally - womanish. Rozanov is a brilliant Russian woman, a mystical woman. And this "womanish" is felt in Russia itself.

Centralism and folk life

Most of our political and cultural ideologies suffer from centralism. Our tendencies, such as Slavophilism and populism, treated with special respect and attention to the life of the people and in various ways sought to rely on the very depths of the Russian land. But in both, there was a significant proportion of the utopianism of centralist ideologies. One of the fundamental mistakes of Narodism was the identification of the people with the common people, with the peasantry, with the working classes. The spiritual and cultural decentralization of Russia, which is absolutely inevitable for our national health, cannot be understood as a purely external spatial movement from capital centers to remote provinces. This is, first of all, an internal movement, an increase in consciousness and the growth of conciliar national energy in every Russian person throughout the Russian land.

On the attitude of Russians to ideas

One of the saddest facts in social and folk psychology is the indifference to ideas and ideological creativity, the ideological backwardness of broad strata of the Russian intelligentsia. Some consider that the minimum of thought contained in Social-Democratic brochures is sufficient in our country, while others - that which can be found in the writings of the holy fathers. Any Russian person seeks salvation, the creation of values ​​is always a little suspicious for him, while in the West a person creates values, creates cultures.

Russian intellectual maximalism, revolutionism, radicalism is a special kind of moralistic asceticism in relation to state, social and historical life in general. The Russian intelligentsia doubts whether it is worth accepting history with all cruelty and anguish, is it not more correct to reject it? Russian thought has always differed from creative thought in the absence of dynamism; it is static, despite changes in relation to various doctrines.

Russian dislike for ideas and indifference to ideas often turn into indifference to truth. And the Russian man is not looking for the truth at all. He seeks salvation from different sides, this is the real Russian truth. Thought, the life of ideas was subordinated to soulfulness, but soulfulness itself was not subordinated to spirituality. Russian spontaneous people's soulfulness takes on various, most opposite forms - protective and rebellious, national-religious and international-socialist. The Russian people are perhaps the most spiritual people in the world. But his spirituality floats in some kind of spontaneous soulfulness, even in corporeality. In this infinity, the spirit did not take possession of the soul. Hence - distrust, indifference and hostility to thought, to ideas. Hence the well-known weakness of the Russian will, of the Russian character. Narodniks and Slavophiles against "abstract thought". In this there is truth, which was drowning, because, as it could not pass through the split and dismemberment, as any thought should pass. The originality and originality of the Russian soul cannot be entwined with thought. This fear is disbelief in Russia and the Russian people.

The creative movement of ideas is in crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. The intelligentsia is not interested, the entire movement is not inspired by the movement of ideas, even the conviction has developed that public figures do not need these ideas. A cultural atmosphere has not yet formed around this. It was impossible to approach the world tragedy with the old stock of ideas - and there was no demand for new ones. The ideas on which the old government rested have completely disintegrated. It is necessary to move to a different ideological dimension. In the world struggle of peoples, the Russian people must have their own idea. In this struggle, Russians must not only rebuild their state and society, but also rebuild themselves ideologically and spiritually. The time has come for the Russian ideological preaching on which the future of Russia depends. And at this most crucial hour in the country, ideological anarchy, there is a mortification of conservative and revolutionary thought. But in the depths of the Russian people, great opportunities are still hidden. Russia must mature to a world role with a spiritual revival.

Introduction

The question of the peculiarities of the national psychological make-up is one of the most difficult and poorly developed. However, without understanding the peculiarities of the psychology of the people, we cannot figure out how to equip our own national house- Russia, to determine forms of social structure and national priorities adequate to their psychotype. The features of the national psychological makeup were thoroughly and comprehensively studied by Russian philosophers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

The national psychological characteristics of the Russian peoples are a combination of social, political, economic, moral, aesthetic, philosophical, religious views and psychological characteristics(attitudes, needs, volitional attitudes, moods, values), characterizes the content, level, features spiritual development, inherent only to this nation (Russian). It includes the attitude of the nation to various values ​​of society, reflects the process of their historical development, past achievements.

In number structural elements national characteristics include a conscious attitude of nations to its material and spiritual values, the ability to create for the sake of their multiplication, an understanding of the need to unite for the sake of pursuing national interests and successful relationships with other national-ethnic groups.

In this work, an attempt is made to study the national psychology of the Russian people. This question is extremely interesting, but at the same time complex and confusing. Moreover, since at the present stage, it seems to me, it is rather difficult to single out precisely Russian national psychology; it is necessary to turn to its history. A special question posed in the study is the problem of ethnocentrism among Russians and its expression in such a phenomenon as national egoism.

1. Factors in the formation of the national psychology of the Russian people

First of all, it is important to define the terminology. In the future, speaking about ethnos, we will mean a collective of people that opposes itself to all other similar collectives, proceeding not from a conscious calculation, but from a sense of complementarity - a subconscious feeling and mutual sympathy and community of people. The determining factor is the opposition "we - they" and the division into "ours" and "foes".

A nation is a historically developed form of a community of people who, as a rule, have a common territory and economic life, language and spiritual makeup, and to some extent biological originality (which often affects their appearance), as well as features of character, temperament and customs. And all this is manifested in the originality of the culture. The unity of the language binds the speakers of it, ensures their unanimity and like-mindedness, since all representatives of a given nation understand each other well. Language is in a special relation to consciousness, being not only a means of communication, but also a means of cognition: language is the soul of a nation.

Nations arose both from tribes and nationalities related to each other, and from people of unrelated tribes, races and nationalities. The Russian nation developed from the Russian nationality, which, in turn, developed from the Eastern Slavic tribes, related to each other in origin and language. At the same time, many elements from the surrounding Western and South Slavs, Germanic, Finno-Ugric, Turkic-speaking peoples, etc., merged into it. Features of the historical past, the formation and development of a nation, the originality of its economic system, culture, geographic and economic environment, way of life, traditions - all this leaves an imprint on the spiritual image of the nation, creates features of the national character.

It is fundamentally important, from my point of view, that during the IX-XIX centuries. Russians were not a nation in the modern sense of the word. Even now, the Russian nation is still in its infancy. Accordingly, such elements of their spiritual culture as the Orthodox religion adopted in 988, their traditions and customs, both formed before the creation of the Russian state, and formed or borrowed later, were key for the self-consciousness of Russians.

Russia has the lowest average annual temperature in the world; the difference between daytime and nighttime, as well as summer and winter temperatures is the largest in the world: the annual difference in central Russia reaches 60 degrees, while in Western Europe it rarely reaches 30 degrees. In Russia, the continental climate is harsh, dry, and intensely subject to fluctuations. The huge plain is not protected either from the north or from the east, and the Russian northeast sweeps over the whole country to the Black Sea and the Caucasus. The high Carpathians separate the country from the warm southwest, and the soft breath of the Gulf Stream is faintly felt near Murmansk. And, perhaps, on the Baltic coast. The further east and north, the more clearly the cold January isotherm falls. However, the body and soul are exhausted not so much by the isotherms themselves, as by the extremes in temperature changes that require serious restructuring from the human body. The isotherm -10 means in Russia the possibility that the thermometer shows below -30 for weeks. In general, the climate of Russia often does not indulge. We have to reckon with a five or six month snowy winter, which can suddenly be seductively interrupted by a many-day thaw, in order to then again be replaced by a continuously raging five or six-day blizzard and burrow whole villages under snowdrifts. At the end of March, snow melts are in full swing. Then an intense flood begins: the rivers overflow their banks. Roads are becoming impassable. A short and always slightly unstable spring (April - May) is followed by a three-month summer with its continental heat, severe thunderstorms, often with devastating hail, sometimes with devastating drought and with any one single crop (hay, grain, vegetables or fruits) ... Early frost often happens already at the end of August, as a messenger of the close autumn, which brings with it to the country for two months (September, October) mostly cloudy skies, cold nights and endless rains, until finally frost and snow bring a good deliverance to the weary and damp earth. Climatic oases such as Carinthia in Western Europe are unknown to the Russian plain: winds and storms rage everywhere, and the whole country appears as a victim of a harsh climate, as if a plaything of the vagaries of the weather. For five to six months a year, the people conduct intense, sometimes exhausting agricultural work, begging for at least one warm week from the heavens and the weather to extend the vegetative period without full confidence that it will be provided in the long autumn-winter and winter-spring time: after all, hail and drought always heralds a real disaster for him. Since the Ice Age and due to the particularly cold climate, Russia has inherited an invisible underground legacy, about which Europe clearly does not have any the slightest clue... This is an underground layer of permafrost that never thaws, even in the hottest summer. This permafrost forms a compact, as if petrified earth block, which at low average temperatures and in the absence of snow is, so to speak, the most vivid expression of natural cruelty.

The permafrost layer occupies about 50% of the territory of Russia. If we add to this the arid steppes and deserts of southern Russia and Central Asia, then the huge difference in the fertility of European and Russian lands becomes obvious. As a result, only a third of Russia's vast territories are efficient for housing and business, but this effective area is also the coldest in the world. Only about 5% of agricultural land in Russia has biological productivity comparable to the average for the United States. The harsh climate of Russia allowed for agricultural work 4-5 months a year, while in Europe the agricultural season lasted 8-10 months. The unusually short working season in agriculture and fodder procurement, as well as the low fertility of most Russian soils, sharply limited the possibilities for the development of agriculture and increased the cost of its production. To this was added climatic instability: in the center of Russia, spring and autumn frosts alternated with long rainy storms, in the south of the country in fertile lands - frequent droughts that destroyed a rich harvest. Either the summer is hot and lacks moisture, or there is a lot of rain and not enough heat. On average, once every 9-10 years, there was a crop failure and famine in central Russia. The level of labor costs in such conditions was several times higher than income.

In Russia, due to the long and cold winter heating season in the south it lasts up to six months a year, in the north - practically all year round; while in Western countries ah - three to four months a year. The cold climate in all centuries demanded from the people much higher costs for clothing, food, construction, insulation and heating of not only housing, but also industrial premises, while in Western countries much could exist under open air... Freezing of soil in Central Russia forces to make foundations more than two meters deep, while in England and Germany low-rise buildings are being built without any foundations at all. For the same reason, all communications in Russia are buried deep in the ground, while in Europe - near the surface of the earth. A one-story house in Russia weighs the same as a three-story house in England, naturally, our construction is three times more expensive. Due to cold winters and sharp temperature changes in Russia, road surfaces and structures are destroyed faster, more than in other countries all sorts of breakdowns and accidents are likely, and any accident is fraught with disaster - one unheated winter makes any building unusable.

In Russia, small areas and scattered fertile lands, as well as scattered natural resources, required the economic development of vast territories, the connection between which and life on which was possible only with strong state centralization. That is, for the survival of the same number of people in our country, it was required to develop much larger territories than in Europe. Therefore, already under Yaroslav the Wise, the territory of Rus was larger than the whole of Western Europe. But at the same time, roads and all types of communication in this space could be equipped only strong state... In Russia Natural resources are several thousand kilometers from ports and world markets, while nowhere in the world do these distances exceed thousands of kilometers. Naturally, overcoming huge spaces for the transportation of raw materials dramatically increases the cost of raw materials. As a result, everything that was produced in Russia in all centuries was the most energy-intensive in the world, and therefore with the highest cost and lowest profitability. Considering Russia's lack of access to the warm seas - world trade routes, then most types of the national economy in Russia are condemned to be unprofitable and extensive.

In addition to the unprecedented harsh nature, the Russian people initially existed in threatening geopolitical conditions. The history of Russia is similar to the history of a besieged fortress. And among the peoples besieging it rarely there was one, usually two or three, but there were also five, nine, and with Napoleon came as many as twelve. Since the beginning of the first millennium of our era, the bulk of the newcomers went through the expanses of present-day Russia; these were the Goths, Huns, Magyars and, finally, the Western Slavs. So the arena of Russian history, sandwiched between Europe and Asia, has become a gateway for the migration of peoples, a true arena of eternal nomads or those who did not have time to settle down. The Eastern Slavs were thus forced to settle down in the entrance courtyard of prehistory and history, right on the path of the great migration of peoples, and serve as a defensive outpost Western European culture... Western Europe knew very little about this outpost, did not recognize it in any way and did not support it in any way. Historically, this was a very important, but thankless role: to defend without support, rely only on your own strength, live on an open plain, create and at any moment wait for the danger of a new invasion and attack. This is how predestination and fate evolved Eastern Slavs: to be the middle people between Europe and Asia, to restrain the onslaught of Asian nomads, to endure extremes, their domination, without losing themselves and not changing their idea, to etch out the alien and absorb it, in order to save, thus, ourselves and European culture from the new Huns , in order to finally rise from sleep and take on the fabric of a new, rather Byzantine than with a Roman touch, culture and thereby create an inspired, in ancient Greek exciting Christian East Slavic civilization.

In those centuries, when the Russian people defended themselves with all their might from the East and South, an aggressive expansion began from Western Europe. As a result, a very special situation was created in Russia: located on an unprotected plain, it was squeezed from all sides, isolated and besieged - in the east, southeast, west and northwest. It was like a continental blockade: nomads from the east and southeast; Tatar Khanate in Crimea, later encouraged Turkish Sultan from Constantinople, - from the south; Austrians and Poles - from the west; Teutonic Order - from the northwest; Danes and Swedes - from the north-north-west. Russian history developed in such a way that there was no choice for it: either it was necessary to fight, or to be destroyed; wage war or turn into slaves and disappear. The historian S. Soloviev calculated that from 800 to 1237 Russia was forced to repel military attacks about once every four years. Although it was a period of relative calm and security, because Western Europe was not yet ready for wars in the Russian East. After the bloody devastating Mongol invasion in the next two hundred years, Russia repelled invasions on average once a year. From the Battle of Kulikovo to the end of the 19th century, Russia was forced to fight, on average, two years out of three years. The historian Boris Nikolsky summarizes the reasons for these countless wars: Until the middle of the VIII century, until Russia intervened in European affairs (that is, approximately until the Seven Years' War), all Russian wars were in the nature of protecting their own interests, reasonably and carefully guarded. Russia did not know of dynastic, religious, or simply out of an excess of warlike fervor and the desire to dominate its neighbors. From the time of the invasion of the Tatars to Peter the Great, Russia had to think only about defense, and when later, under Peter, she stood firmly in the North-West, and in the South reached the Black Sea, it was nothing more than a struggle for gate, outside the exit from your own house and yard.

It is clear that it was possible to survive in unprecedentedly difficult conditions only thanks to certain compensatory mechanisms - both in social and political life and in the national character. Many public and state institutions in Russia are not similar to Western ones and therefore have always been severely criticized as backward, Asian, slavish, while in Russia those forms prevailed that made it possible to survive in the harshest corner of the planet. Serfdom in Russia was not the result of the greed and cruelty of the tsar and the landowners, but a kind, albeit cruel, compensatory mechanism for the survival of the Russian society as a whole. At the same time, serfdom in Russia extended only to the Russian provinces of central Russia; it was not introduced in the annexed outskirts, including because there were more favorable conditions for agriculture. That is, the Russian people bore the main burden of ensuring and protecting the state.

Life objectively demanded a greater role of the state than in the West, for Russian statehood is a form of self-preservation of the people in the most difficult conditions of historical existence. Development social forms oppressed not by arbitrary encroachments of the state, but by the burden of historical life. Constant wars slowed down and limited the free development of being. The state constantly demanded sacrifice from the people, envisioned and calculated its capabilities, put life on a spare track, obliged everyone to his workplace, placed his burden on everyone, demanded a return from everyone. The harsh conditions of economic life also required much more state participation in the economy than in Europe. The country's need for a strong centralized power is objective, just as self-serving use of power is inevitable in any society.

The struggle for survival in incredibly difficult conditions brought up in the Russian people enterprise, quick wit, a dynamic and versatile mind, and unyielding will. Objective life cycles brought up among the people the habit of alternating periods of overstrain with the necessary pauses of relaxation. The Russian peasant was simply obliged to lie on the stove in winter, otherwise in the summer he would not have enough strength for hard labor with a sleep of no more than four hours a day. Such cycles of overstrain-relaxation were also characteristic of national behavior, without which the development of immense expanses and protection from endless invasions and endless natural disasters would have been inaccessible. This is how a special human type was formed, and this is how the character of the Russian people was reflected in the appearance of the state, culture and civilization. At the same time, such a peculiarity was incomprehensible to Europeans, and was often interpreted as barbarism, causing the urge to civilize the Russians.

However, human life in a huge empire was possible due to the fact that the Russian state-forming people were characterized by conciliarism, getting along with the most diverse peoples, and religious tolerance. Many peoples voluntarily entered Russian empire, huge territories were joined that did not have their own statehood, and only in some cases were conquered lands that were a source of constant threat to Russia. At the same time, the Russian people did not destroy, enslave, or forcibly baptize any people (which is completely unprecedented against the background of the colonial policy of Western European peoples, who destroyed and enslaved the indigenous population of several continents). Russia defended Christian civilization from the Tatar-Mongol invasion. Russia has never made an expansion to Europe, from which it faced mortal danger for centuries. Russian troops were in Berlin and Paris, but only when repelling aggression. The civilized French in 1812 blew up Russian churches or set up stables in them, burned down the Moscow Kremlin, while Russian soldiers behaved more than gallantly in Paris. The victorious campaigns of the Russian army in Europe did not end with the annexation of any lands, which was completely unacceptable in the West. In relations with other peoples, Russians displayed unparalleled moral qualities.

Thus, those who look at the history of Russia from a high ideological standpoint will see a picture of the ultimate dramatic tension: the tension of the external - military-political, and internal - social, spiritual, moral, religious. Russia in all epochs had to withstand a kind, peculiar only to her burden life problems, which demanded from the people strength and abilities, the development and consolidation of which was highly complicated by history itself.

2. Features of the national mentality of the Russian people

In the system of values ​​of the Russian people, in order of importance, there was wealth, understood as the satisfaction of modest material needs, respect for fellow villagers, righteousness of behavior, and children. Happiness, or, as I would say modern man, life success consisted in living life, working in moderation, healthy, in modest prosperity, necessarily in accordance with the customs and traditions bequeathed from ancestors, in truth and conscience, in order to have big family and many children, enjoy the respect of fellow villagers, do not commit many sins, if possible, do not leave their village and die at home in the circle of relatives and friends, having managed to repent of their sins before the priest.

To power and fame, in the modern sense of these words, the Russian people were indifferent, to wealth - contradictory. On the one hand, he understood that money can give power, strength and material well-being... On the other hand, he believed that wealth was immoral, since it was always acquired not according to conscience and truth, to the detriment and expense of others. It does not bring peace of mind, on the contrary, possession of it is associated with great troubles, worries and fear for your future in the next world, in the eternal afterlife. This view of wealth predetermined the consumer attitude to land, property in general, and to labor. The concept of private ownership of land was alien to the Russian peasants, although they recognized the right of ownership of movable property. The land seemed to them not as an object of property, but as a condition of labor, to which every man has the right upon reaching the age of majority. The earth was considered to be God's, they looked at it as the common property of those who cultivate it. This understanding was based on the conviction that only labor applied to the land turned it into the possession of those who worked on it. Hence the idea that the land belongs to those who cultivate it, i.e. peasants.

Before the abolition of serfdom, the peasants believed that they owned the land that was in use by the community; in the post-reform period, this view was transformed: the peasants began to believe that they should also own the landlord's land.

The peasant was alien to the bourgeois view of property as a source of wealth and power. In his opinion, property should provide a person with basic livelihoods. Using it for exploitation and enrichment is sinful. The source of existence of each person should be personal labor. The accumulation of property does not make much sense, since it does not guarantee social recognition, respect, does not help the realization of the main goals of life, generates selfish feelings and enmity, distracts from thoughts about God. The Russian people looked negatively at usury and profit. He was characterized by the concept of a fair price, which compensated for the costs, and alien to the concept of the market price, which is set by the market, supply and demand. In the 1850s, after prices for vodka were established, which peasants considered unfair, a sober movement spread among them.

Labor should be moderate (“Bring in paid, there is bread, and lie on the stove”), because work beyond measure is a kind of greed and cannot be a godly deed (“God has many days ahead - we will work out”). The work has no end and edge, so it is important not to lose a sense of proportion and stop in time in order to leave time to satisfy other, no less important spiritual human needs ("There is a lot of hay for a sharp scythe"; "For a zealous horse, not a whip, but reins") ... One of the ways to regulate the duration of working hours was holidays, during which work was considered a sin, prohibited, condemned by public opinion and persecuted not only according to custom, but also according to the law. Russian peasants believed that a holiday was no less a godly deed than work. Holidays not only brought rest from hard work, but also had a sacred character, as they were intended for visiting church and performing religious rites. The peasants sincerely believed that working on Sundays and church holidays is sinful and meaningless: what is acquired on a holiday is lost on weekdays (“Whoever yells on Sunday, he looks for a mare on Monday”). An old Ukrainian peasant, exiled in 1879 to exile in the distant Vyatka province for having managed to personally convey a peasant petition to Alexander II, was, according to an eyewitness, church holidays. He was preoccupied with the question: will God forgive him that his old eyes on the declining days saw such a sin? Secular holidays, which were considered "royal days", also had a sacred character, since it was considered a sin not to honor the king - the source of benefits, truth and protector of the peasants ("The royal holiday is not our day, but the royal one").

The holidays also had one more important aspect: it was a way to go beyond everyday worries and routine, to rise above everyday life with all its hardships, difficulties, hardships, obligations, duties, social inequality and injustice, dependence on authorities and plunge into the world of joy, carefree fun and freedom. On a holiday, the Russian did not obey anyone, was not afraid of anyone - it was a zone inaccessible to the landowner and the authorities ("Every soul is glad for the holiday"; "On a holiday with God, everyone is equal"; "On such a day, sinners in hell are not tormented"). Of course, alcohol helped to break away from everyday life; drunkenness was the main condition of the festive state, therefore the holidays were accompanied by abundant libations ("On a holiday and a sparrow has beer"), and this was not considered a sin.

According to prevailing ideas, little depends on the individual in life. “Wealth and poverty were perceived as a gift or punishment sent down by God,” testified the peasant I. Stolyarov. - You can't complain about God. God is free to reward with his mercy or punish with his anger. His ways are inscrutable. " According to the observations of experts in folk life, in particular S.V. Maksimova, the peasants were sure that not the man himself, not all people together, not natural evolution, but the power of the cross (God, angels, saints, etc.), an unclean force (devils, brownies, etc.) and the unknown strength (fire, water and others natural phenomena) determined the course of things in nature and society. Therefore, the collection of conspiracies was, according to G.I. Uspensky, "a healer for all diseases, an assistant and a guide in all everyday troubles, misfortunes and difficulties, including an assistant and from the authorities." Hence came passivity, indifference to the future ("Every day suffices for his worries"; "Do not believe in tomorrow!"), Belief in a miraculous deliverance from all troubles and suffering, belief in a good king, in a word, belief in a miracle that can change everything for the better. At the same time, it was believed that the efforts of an individual can be a prerequisite for achieving life goals.

The Russian believed that if all people are equal before God and the Tsar, then within the community everyone should be equal in everything: have equal rights and responsibilities, equal wealth, etc .; deviations from equality lead to sin and loss of respect: "Wealth is a sin before God, and poverty is before people."

Time was perceived as moving in a circle, cyclical, and accordingly, it represented that everything in the world repeats itself, and does not change. Deviation from normal, i.e. the repetitive course of things seemed to him to be something exceptional, the work of the hands of evil forces, the result of the intrigues of sorcerers and therefore temporary and transitory: "If it comes to an end, it will wear itself out - everything will go the same way." From this stemmed his distrust of all changes, all innovations, be they good or bad, and traditionalism, which, at least, guaranteed the preservation of what a person possesses in this moment... Extreme forms of manifestation of traditionalism were found among the Old Believers, who, for example, considered any new way, facilitating the work of the farmer, since they believed that "with a decrease in labor in agriculture, a person will no longer be worthy of the Lord to lend him to the field", i.e. gave him a crop.

The Russian assessed his particular village, community, homeland as the best place on Earth to live. From the corpus of proverbs that contain an assessment of homeland and foreign land, only in one can you find a preference for foreign land ("Living in a village - there is no fun"), in three - the idea of ​​the equivalence of homeland and foreign land ("Where not to live, just to be full") ... The remaining 49 proverbs express affection and love for their native land, varying in different ways the idea that "the dear side is the mother, and the stranger is the stepmother." 5 proverbs contain the idea that one can try to find happiness in a foreign land, but it is impossible not to love one's homeland: "Look for good on the side, but love your house in the old days."

The Russian peasant believed that the community was the source of truth and justice, reliable protection from violators of custom and tradition, from the master and the official, that she was the most expedient form of human society ("A peasant cannot find stronger than mundane bast shoes"). He did not think of himself outside of it (“Where the world has a hand, there is my head”), believing that only the community is able to reconcile different interests, find a solution acceptable to all, and that as soon as the community perishes, the peasantry will be ruined and lost (“ No layman is away from the world ").

Agricultural labor seemed filled with great meaning, having essential for the whole state ("A man is a candle for God, for a sovereign a servant"). The tiller admitted that all estates performed useful functions: the peasant lives and serves to plow, mow, pay taxes and feed everyone; master - to keep an eye on the peasant, to knock out arrears and receive a salary; priest - to marry, baptize, bury; monks - to pray for everyone; soldiers to protect the state, merchants to trade.

The Slavophiles, in my opinion, correctly believed that even on the eve of the abolition of serfdom, the peasantry in its worldview preserved, if not in all its purity and inviolability, then to a large extent the traditions, customs and mores of the pre-Petrine era. And the Westerner K.D. Kavelin formulated this worldview as follows: “The peasant, first and foremost, is an unconditional adherent of the rite, custom, established order, tradition. All his household and household use is predetermined by how his fathers and grandfathers started and arranged it. The complete absence of initiative, boundless submission to what comes from the outside - this is the basic principle of the entire worldview of the peasant. His whole life is determined by him. His views on the principle exclude the creative activity of people as a source of material and spiritual benefits, as a weapon against evils and misfortunes. "

As can be seen from the above, the mentality of the peasantry, which constituted the overwhelming majority of the Russian people, was in accordance with the ideals of Orthodoxy and it would be correct to call it the traditional Orthodox mentality. It is no coincidence that the word "peasant" had two meanings in the Old Russian literary language and colloquial Russian 1) baptized, Orthodox, inhabitant of the Russian land and 2) peasant, farmer, farmer.

The townspeople in social and cultural relations were much more heterogeneous than the rural population, as a result of which a general description of the characteristics of their mentality is hardly possible. But if the analysis is limited to the mentality of those who, according to the definition of educated contemporaries, belonged to commoners, common people, or to the urban lower classes, i.e. to the bourgeoisie, artisans and working people, as well as the peasants-townspeople, who together accounted for 72% of the total urban population in the 1730s. up to 90% in 1897, then common features in the mentality can be found. Data on occupations, family and social life, worldview, marriage, funeral and other customs, games and entertainment, reading circle show that the urban lower classes in the overwhelming majority of Russian cities until the middle of the 19th century, excluding, perhaps, a few large cities, possessed approximately the same spiritual culture and mentality as the peasants, although they differed in their material culture (clothing, housing, etc.). Contemporaries constantly emphasized the rustic character of the family and social life of the urban lower classes. I.G. Georgi, describing the lifestyle of Petersburg residents at the end of the 18th century, who were more affected by European influences than residents of other cities, noted that the customs and customs of the common people have changed little and only among the noble elite - radically. Russian correspondents geographic society in the 1840-1850s. brought abundant material illustrating the similarity of life and worldview of the peasantry and the urban lower classes of small and medium-sized cities. "The spiritual level of merchants and bourgeoisie" of Kazan - a large commercial and industrial university city located in the top ten Russian cities of the middle of the 19th century, with a population of about 60 thousand, according to correspondent E.T. Solovyov, was very similar to the peasant, even in the early 1870s. Often, the correspondents gave a general description of the life and customs of the "commoners" of the city and its district, there were so few differences, they noted that the "common people" of the city and the district did not have any peculiarities in the language, that both had a common folklore and, in particular, a common dictionary of proverbs. In the Nizhny Novgorod seminary in the 1840s. a collection of religious prejudices and superstitions was compiled, equally characteristic of urban and rural "common people" (so that future pastors were ready to fight them). The smaller the city was and the more its inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, the less the townspeople differed from the peasants in all respects, including their mentality. In small towns, as well as in villages, fistfights, parties and gatherings were held, witchcraft and magic were practiced, collective prayers on the occasion of drought. Archaic customs found in the village, such as plowing the city during epidemics and epizootics (at night, women harnessed to a plow and furrowed around the city), collective verification of the virginity of the bride, and others. The last custom has been preserved even in some large cities, for example, among the petty bourgeoisie of Astrakhan with a population of about 50 thousand inhabitants. This is how a contemporary describes this custom in 1851. The newlywed's shirt was taken out to the guests after the first wedding night. In an unfavorable case, the groom gave his wife two slaps in the face and severely beat her parents, the guests left, the torn shirt was hung on a pole. If the shirt had proper marks, then 15 women staged horse races along the Astrakhan streets on a pole, during which their leader waved the shirt like a flag. Pagan views among the townspeople of small provincial cities existed until the beginning of the 20th century.

3. The problem of national egoism

National relations to a great extent depend on the civic maturity of each person and the depth of understanding of the fundamental interests of his people and society as a whole. This is the basis national identity... National identity is a feeling and self-awareness of the spiritual unity of one's people and, moreover, precisely of its cultural originality - its customs, traditions, beliefs. The one who speaks about his nation means, first of all, the spiritual unity of his people. A nation is something one for many. The nation is a great family that unites all its sons and daughters, grandparents, great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers.

National identity has a huge regulatory life-affirming force: it contributes to the rallying of people of a given nationality, acting as a kind of protective mechanism that allows it to continuously preserve its integrity and socio-cultural certainty in communication with other nations and nationalities, counteracting factors that erode the nation, say, infringement of interests, assimilation etc. National identity contributes to the general cultural rise of the nation, its historical development in the inflorescence of other nations. In the process of upbringing and education of a person, tastes for national art, respect for national customs and mores, traditions, a sense of pride in the heroes of their history and culture, the memory of which lives in the souls of people passing from generation to generation, are formed. This contributes to the unity of the nationality and the nation as a special community.

The concept of mentality has not acquired in historical science strict outlines, does not have a generally accepted clear definition. In this work, mentalities will mean socio-psychological stereotypes, automatisms and habits of consciousness laid down by upbringing and cultural traditions, value orientations, significant ideas and views that do not belong to individuals, but to a particular socio-cultural community. Mentality can be called paradigms or reference models of perception, understanding and assessment of reality, developed by the public, or mass, consciousness within a given community; they are shared by all or by the overwhelming majority of its members. Taken together, mentality form a mentality - a kind of system, often contradictory, which, nevertheless, provides an individual person with a model for seeing the world, ways of posing and solving problems that he has to face. Being conditioned by cultural traditions and assimilated from childhood, mentalities provide the individual and the community to which he belongs with a deep program of activity, rules or algorithms of behavior, a kind of instructions for all, or at least for important occasions.

National egoism, no matter how it is evaluated, is an integral feature of any nation. Russian thinker V.S. Soloviev noted that national egoism is the exaltation of one's own nation over all others. The basis of national egoism is formed by the ideas of national superiority and national exclusivity, which gives rise to national arrogance. One of the temptations of national egoism is the desire to justify their people in everything by exaggerating their dignity. It should be noted that the higher the national self-consciousness of a people, the stronger the feeling of national dignity, and the more respect and love it experiences in relation to other peoples. Any nation becomes richer spiritually if it respects another nation

For many decades of interethnic cohabitation, the peoples of Russia have largely mixed, scattered, settled in its different regions. Along with the national majority living compactly in a particular region, national minorities have also appeared. Their social status, their rights, access to material and cultural benefits differed significantly from the position of the national majority.

It is also necessary to mention the national policy. This is the purposeful activity of the subjects of politics to regulate the relationship between nations and peoples, enshrined in the relevant political documents and legal acts of the state. The core of the national policy is the art of reconciling national interests, the ability to ensure the realization of the natural right of each people to an independent, free, dignified existence, the preservation of identity, language, culture and traditions.

In a multinational country, national egoism inevitably gives rise to interethnic conflicts - this is an extreme form of the state of socio-political contradictions between rival ethnic groups created to protect their national interests. The reasons for these conflicts are very diverse: political, economic, social, religious, territorial, military, etc. Can be distinguished the following factors the emergence of such conflicts: 1. The presence of a certain level of national identity, sufficient for the people to realize the abnormality of their position, 2. The accumulation in society of a dangerous critical mass of real problems and deformations affecting all aspects of national life, 3. The presence of specific political forces capable of using the first two factors in the fight.

Conclusion

What are the results of the study? Throughout the IX-XIX centuries. the Russian people developed in a traditional society. Only by the end of this huge period were some signs of a transition to modernity emerging at the mass level (and not just among the elite). Accordingly, the basis of the mentality was the Orthodox religion in its symbiosis with the traditions and customs of the Russian people. Throughout its history, the Russian people have been in specific and, by and large, unfavorable climatic, geographic and, in general, natural conditions, which predetermined the formation of a mentality that is specific in terms of a set of qualities and traits. The most important for the formation of national identity and national egoism among Russians has become geographic location Rus on the Eurasian continent. Unlike most other peoples, the Russian settlement territory was not isolated by any natural barriers. And this territory itself was originally inhabited by other peoples. The Russian people initially became one of the most belligerent, but at the same time one of the most peaceful. The absence of clear boundaries, the location at the crossroads of routes from Asia to Europe, constantly put the Russian people in front of the need to defend themselves, and at the same time, all this provided a constantly fueled experience of communication with other peoples. The constant struggle demanded from the Russians not to yield to their opponents in technology, technology, etc. As a result, one of the most important features of the Russians was formed - the ability to borrow the achievements of other peoples, even on a massive scale, while maintaining and increasing their originality.

In the course of the twists and turns of the historical process, the Russians created a huge empire. In many ways, the basis for this, and on the other hand, and the consequence, was the formation of a calm, benevolent, generous attitude towards other peoples, both inhabiting Russia and foreign, among Russians. And cohabitation of different religions contributed to the formation of religious tolerance.

In general, the Russians have formed a complex of such qualities that are not characteristic of a historical people, such as benevolence, an increased interest in other peoples, and religious tolerance. National arrogance did not take root among the masses and was characteristic of the upper strata. Although it should be emphasized that the idea of ​​God's chosenness of the Russian people, its messianic role, which has been entrenched in Russia since the end of the Middle Ages, is, in a sense, an expression of the idea of ​​national superiority. However, in its hidden soft forms. First of all, because it is combined with another fundamental value - Equality - before God, the king, people. And later, after the upheavals of the 17th century. and the beginning of the Peter's reforms, a feeling of inferiority was added to it, the need for study and borrowing from more developed neighbors. Thus, the Russian people developed a specific type of national egoism, which in many ways contributed to the formation of the Russian Empire and the transformation of the Russian people into one of the most numerous peoples in the world. Russian national egoism is characterized by such features as a very active desire to communicate with other peoples, to provide assistance (sometimes even by force). At the same time, there is nothing in common with the missionary habits of the "white people" of Western Europe. But there is a messianic idea. It seems to me that it is appropriate here to recall the words of the Poet: ... Oppressed by the burden of the godmother, / All of you, dear Earth, / In a servile form, Heavenly King, / He went out, blessing ...

V a certain sense, the Russian people in the IX-XIX centuries. imagined himself just such a Heavenly King, responsible for his country, its past and future.

Bibliography

1.Aksyuchits V. The Phenomenon of the Russian Spirit. # "justify"> 2. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. M., 1994.

3.Berdyaev N.A. The fate of Russia. M., 1990,

.B.P. Vysheslavtsev Russian national character. // Questions of Philosophy, 1995 №6.

.Gromov M.N. The Eternal Values ​​of Russian Culture: Towards the Interpretation of Russian Philosophy. // Questions of philosophy. 1994. No. 1. from 57.

.Gumilev L.N. From Russia to Russia. M., 1994.

.Dunaev M.M. May all be one Word. 1992. No. 7

8.Zenkovsky V.V. History of Russian Philosophy. L., 1991.

9.History of Russia with early XVIII until the end of the 19th centuries. M., 1997.

.V.K. Kantor The Russian European as a Phenomenon of Culture (Philosophical and Historical Analysis) M., 2001

11.V.K. Kantor Elements and civilization: two factors of "Russian destiny" Questions of philosophy. 1994 # 5

12.Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history. M., 1993.

13.Lebon G. Psychology of peoples and masses. SPb., 1995.

.Lossky N.O. The character of the Russian people. // Questions of Philosophy, 1996 №4.

.Mironov B.N. Social history of Russia. T. 1, 2.M., 2003.

.Platonov S.F. Lectures on Russian history. Part 1, 2.M., 1994.

.Dictionary of philosophical terms. M., 2004.

national Russian mentality value

Tutoring

Need help exploring a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Send a request with the indication of the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

Soul of Russia

Russia is contradictory, antinomical. The soul of Russia is not covered by any doctrines ... it is possible to approach the solution of the secret hidden in the soul of Russia, immediately recognizing the antinomy of Russia, its terrible inconsistency.

Russia is the most stateless, the most anarchist country in the world. And the Russian people are the most apolitical people, who have never been able to organize their land ... The Russian soul wants a sacred community, a government chosen by God. The nature of the Russian people is recognized as ascetic, renouncing earthly affairs and earthly blessings ...

At the heart of Russian history is the famous legend about the vocation of the Varangians-foreigners to rule the Russian land, since "our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it." How typical this is for the fatal inability and unwillingness of the Russian people to establish order in their own land! The Russian people seem to want not so much a free state, freedom in the state, as freedom from the state, freedom from worries about the earthly order. The Russian people do not want to be a courageous builder, their nature is defined as feminine, passive and submissive in matters of state, they always wait for a groom, husband, ruler ... It is very characteristic that in Russian history there was no chivalry, this courageous beginning. This word is associated with the insufficient development of the personal principle in Russian life. The Russian people have always loved to live in the warmth of the collective, in some kind of dissolution in the elements of the earth, in the bosom of their mother. Chivalry forges a sense of personal dignity and honor, creates a temper of personality. This personal temper was not created by Russian history. In the Russian person there is softness, in the Russian face there is no carved and chiseled profile.

Russia is the most state-owned and most bureaucratic country in the world; everything in Russia is turning into an instrument of politics. The Russian people created the most powerful state in the world, the greatest empire. Russia has consistently and stubbornly gathered from Ivan Kalita and has reached dimensions that stagger the imagination of all the peoples of the world. The forces of the people, about whom it is not without reason that they think that they are striving towards inner spiritual life, are given to the colossus of statehood, which turns everything into its instrument. The interests of creating, maintaining and protecting a huge state occupy a completely exclusive and overwhelming place in Russian history. The Russian people had almost no strength left for a free creative life, all the blood was spent on strengthening and protecting the state. Classes and estates were poorly developed and did not play the role that they played in the history of Western countries. The personality was crushed by the enormous size of the state, making unbearable demands ... No philosophy of history, Slavophile or Westernizing, has yet figured out why the most stateless people created the most enormous and powerful statehood, why the most anarchic people are so subjugated to the bureaucracy, why a free spirit people seem to be would not want a free life? This secret is associated with a special relationship between the feminine and masculine principles in the Russian folk character. The same antinomy runs through the whole of Russian life.

There is a mysterious contradiction in the attitude of Russia and Russian consciousness to nationality. This is the second antinomy, no less important than the attitude towards the state. Russia is the most non-chauvinistic country in the world. Nationalism in our country always gives the impression of something non-Russian, superficial, some kind of unremarkable. Germans, British, French - chauvinists and nationalists in the mass, they are full of national self-confidence and self-righteousness. Russians are almost ashamed of being Russian; national pride is alien to them and often even - alas? - national dignity is alien. The Russian people are not at all characterized by aggressive nationalism and inclinations of violent Russification. Russian does not advance, does not exhibit, does not despise others. In the Russian element, there truly is some kind of national disinterestedness, sacrifice, unknown to Western peoples.

Russian history has shown a completely exceptional spectacle - the complete nationalization of the Church of Christ, which defines itself as universal. Church nationalism is a characteristic Russian phenomenon. Our Old Believers are soaked through and through with it. But the same nationalism reigns in the ruling church. The same nationalism penetrates into the Slavophil ideology, which has always replaced the universal with the Russians. The universal spirit of Christ, the courageous universal Logos is captivated by the feminine national element, the Russian land in its pagan primogeniture. This is how the religion of dissolution in mother earth, in the collective national element, in animal warmth was formed. Russian religiosity is feminine religiosity, religiosity of collective biological warmth experienced as mystical warmth. The personal religious principle is poorly developed in it; she is afraid of going out of the collective warmth into the cold and fire of personal religiosity. Such religiosity renounces the courageous, active spiritual path. This is not so much the religion of Christ as the religion of the Mother of God, the religion of mother earth, the female deity that illuminates the carnal life.

Mother Earth for the Russian people is Russia. Russia turns into the Mother of God. Russia is a God-bearing country ...

The Russian people truly have freedom of spirit, which is given only to those who are not too absorbed in the thirst for earthly profit and earthly well-being. Russia is a country of everyday freedom, unknown to the advanced peoples of the West, enslaved by philistine norms. Only in Russia there is no oppressive power of bourgeois conventions, there is no despotism of the bourgeois family. The Russian person with great lightness of spirit overcomes all bourgeoisness, leaves any way of life, from any normalized life. The wanderer type is so characteristic of Russia and so beautiful. The Wanderer is the freest man on earth. He walks on the ground, but his element is airy, he has not grown into the ground, there is no squatness in him. The Wanderer is free from the "world", and all the burden of the earth and earthly life was reduced for him to a small knapsack on his shoulders. The greatness of the Russian people and its calling to a higher life are concentrated in the type of a wanderer.

And here is the antithesis. Russia is a country of unheard-of servility and terrible submission, a country devoid of consciousness of individual rights and does not defend the dignity of the individual, a country of inert conservatism, the enslavement of religious life by the state, a country of a strong life and heavy flesh. Russia is a country of merchants immersed in heavy flesh, money-grubbing, conservative to the point of immobility, a country of officials who never transgress the limits of a closed and dead bureaucratic kingdom, a country of peasants who do not want anything but land and accept Christianity outwardly and selfishly, a country of the clergy, immersed in material life, a country of ritualism, a country of intellectuals, inert and conservative in their thought, infected with the most superficial materialistic ideas. Russia does not like beauty, is afraid of beauty as a luxury, does not want any redundancy. It is almost impossible to budge Russia, it’s so heavy, so inert, so lazy, so immersed in matter, so humbly putting up with its life.

How to understand this mysterious inconsistency of Russia, this equal fidelity of mutually exclusive theses about it? And here, as elsewhere, in the question of the freedom and slavery of the soul of Russia, of her wandering and her immobility, we are faced with the secret of the relationship between the masculine and the feminine. The root of these deep contradictions lies in the disconnection between the masculine and the feminine in the Russian spirit and the Russian character. Boundless freedom turns into boundless slavery, eternal wandering turns into eternal stagnation, because courageous freedom does not take possession of the feminine national element in Russia from the inside, from the depths. A courageous beginning is always expected from the outside, a personal beginning is not revealed in the Russian people itself. Hence the eternal dependence on foreign things. In philosophical terms, this means that Russia always feels the courageous beginning in itself is transcendental, and not immanent, coming from outside. This is related to the fact that everything courageous, liberating and shaping in Russia was not Russian, foreign, Western European, French or German or Greek in the old days. Russia is, as it were, powerless to shape itself into free being, powerless to shape itself into a personality. A return to one's own soil, to one's own national element, so easily assumes the character of enslavement in Russia, leads to immobility, turns into a reaction. Russia is getting married, waiting for the groom, who should come from some heights, but it is not the betrothed who comes, but a German official and owns it. In the life of the spirit, they own it: now Marx, now Kant, now Steiner, now some other foreign husband. Russia, such a peculiar country of such extraordinary spirit, was constantly in a servile attitude towards Western Europe. She did not study from Europe, which is necessary and good, did not join European culture, which is salutary for her, but slavishly obeyed the West or, in a savage nationalist reaction, smashed the West, denied culture. God Apollo, the god of courageous form, did not go to Dionysian Russia. Russian Dionysianism is barbaric, not Hellenic. And in other countries you can find all the opposites, but only in Russia does the thesis turn into an antithesis, bureaucratic statehood is born from anarchism, slavery is born from freedom, extreme nationalism from supranationalism. There is only one way out of this hopeless circle: the disclosure within Russia itself, in its spiritual depths, of a courageous, personal, shaping principle, mastery of its own national element, the immanent awakening of a courageous, luminous consciousness.

WORLD DANGER (FOREWORD)

The work of N. Berdyaev "The Fate of Russia" was created in exile, but most of the articles included in the collection were written during the First World War before the revolutionary events in Russia. In the preface, the author notes with sadness: "Great Russia no longer exists and there are no world problems facing it, which I tried to comprehend in my own way." But the new time requires a revision of the reactions of the living spirit to everything that happens in the world. The revolution and the withdrawal from the war are regarded as a fall and dishonor, which contributed to the military successes of Germany. But on the other hand, Berdyaev believes that “Germany is a perfectly organized and disciplined impotence. She overstrained, exhausted and forced to hide her fear of her own victories. "

The philosopher sees a more real threat than Germany, a threat from the East. “From the East, not Aryan or Christian, there is a thunderstorm all over Europe. The results of the war will not be used by those who count on it. Nobody will win. The winner will no longer be able to use his victory. All will be defeated alike. " How does this echo the events currently taking place in the world (September 11, Iraq, Al-Qaeda, Chechnya), which are provoked by religious, political divisions in the world, which can lead to a religious war on a planetary scale, where there will definitely not be winners and losers. “And then the punishment will come from Asia. On the ashes of old Christian Europe, exhausted, shaken to the very foundations by its own barbaric chaotic elements, another race alien to us, with a different faith, with a civilization alien to us, will wish to take a dominant position. Compared to this prospect, the whole world war is just a family strife. "

Berdyaev predicts that after the weakening and disintegration of Europe and Russia, “Sinism and Americanism will reign, two forces that can find points of convergence with each other. Then the Sino-American kingdom of equality will be realized, in which no ascents and ascents will be possible anymore. " We currently have only two superpowers - the United States and China. The United States is striving to turn Russia into its raw material appendage, a dump of radioactive waste, a "third world" country. China, which by its rapid development, the seizure of the world market, the provision of cheap labor, the development of high-precision technologies, has turned into a country with enormous potential and an acute shortage of territory, is conducting a quiet expansion of the Russian Far East. The settlement of our territories by the Chinese, their assimilation is purposefully carried out, all this clearly confirms the idea of ​​the author. If the author's prophecies come true, then no state in the world will be able to resist this Empire.

The author proposes a revival through the unification of spiritual, Christian forces against the forces of anti-Christian and destructive. He believes that “sooner or later a“ sacred union ”of all creative Christian forces, all faithful to the eternal shrines, should arise in the world,” but he himself adds: “The world is entering a period of long trouble and great upheavals. But great values ​​must be carried through all trials. For this, the human spirit must be clothed in armor, must be chivalrously armed. " Berdyaev sees only one way of positive development of society - its development through spiritual self-improvement and development inner peace a single person.

I. Psychology of the Russian people

I.I. Soul of Russia

“For a long time there was a premonition that Russia is destined for something great, that Russia is a special country, unlike any other country in the world. Russian national thought was nourished by the feeling of being God-chosen and God-bearing in Russia. "

This chapter examines the role of Russia in world life, its possibility of influencing the spiritual life of the West "by the mysterious depth of the Russian East." Berdyaev believes that the outbreak of the First World War pitted the eastern (Russia) and western (Germany) humanity. The war became a kind of catalyst for the development and unification of East and West. It should help Russia to take a "great-power position in the spiritual world concert", to become a full-fledged member of Europe.

The author believes that “the hour of world history is close, when the Slavic race led by Russia is called to a decisive role in the life of mankind,” but on the other hand, considering the Russian mentality, he admits: “Russia is the most stateless, the most anarchist country in the world. And the Russian people are the most apolitical people who have never been able to organize their land. " And this contradiction raises in me a natural question: "How can a country, whose internal organization does not stand up to any criticism, with a heavy, clumsy state apparatus, an" apolitical people ", can, according to Berdyaev, claim a leading role in determining the fate of mankind?" After reading this book, I have not received an answer to my question.

The author's assessment of the Russian character, its passivity, contemplation is magnificent: "At the heart of Russian history is the significant legend about the vocation of foreign Varangians to rule the Russian land, since" our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. " How characteristic is the fatal inability and unwillingness of the Russian people to establish order in their own land! The Russian people seem to want not so much a free state, freedom in the state, as freedom from the state, freedom from worries about the earthly order. " The eternal Russian laziness, the hope for a "good master", the thirst for "freebies" in any of its manifestations are shown in this quote in all its glory. And after all, surprisingly, almost 100 years have passed since the book was written, but nothing has changed in the perception, desires, and worldview of the Russian person. "Varyag-foreigner", "kind master" - we still have enough of these characters (German Gref is a financier, Abramovich is "the best friend of all Chukchi", Putin is "only from Berlin", Mavrodi is a "partner", etc. .), but the desire to try to do something on his own, to work for himself, and not for a penny for the state, our man did not and does not have. A Russian is not accustomed to taking risks, because it is much easier to live badly, but with the confidence that you will not be fired from a low-paid job. To live in a small apartment, consoling oneself with the thought that after all someone lives in a "hostel", etc. "The Russian people have always loved to live in the warmth of the collective, in some kind of dissolution in the elements of the earth, in the bosom of their mother."

“Russian folk life with its mystical sects, and Russian literature and Russian thought, and the terrible fate of Russian writers and the fate of the Russian intelligentsia, cut off from the soil and at the same time so characteristic of the national, everything, everything gives us the right to assert the thesis that Russia - a country of endless freedom and spiritual distances, a rebellious and terrible country in its spontaneity, in its popular Dionysimism, which does not want to know the form. " This thesis was confirmed by further historical events: revolutions, the establishment of Soviet power, which destroyed the Great Empire with its foundations, spirituality, introduced new moral and spiritual values, physically destroyed the intelligentsia, which led to a change in the nation at the genetic level. The fruits of which we are now successfully reaping, observing the general lack of spirituality, hypocrisy and thirst for profit.

The antithesis of this thought: "Russia is a country of unheard of servility and terrible obedience, a country devoid of consciousness of individual rights and does not defend the dignity of the individual, a country of inert conservatism, the enslavement of religious life by the state, a country of strong life and heavy flesh." In his antithesis, Berdyaev proclaims that the country is almost impossible to budge, that it is inert and meekly puts up with its life, but after only a few years, his antithesis was destroyed to the ground.

Considering the confrontation in the world war between Germany and Russia, Berdyaev characterizes it as a confrontation between races, cultures, spirituality, polar opposite to each other. He believes that: “The world war, in the bloody cycle of which all parts of the world and all races are already involved, should, in bloody torments, give birth to a firm consciousness of all-human unity. Culture will cease to be so exclusively European and will become world, universal. And Russia, which occupies the place of the mediator between the East and the West, which is the East-West, is called upon to play a great role in bringing mankind to unity. The world war brings us vitally to the problem of Russian messianism. " It seems to me that any war cannot be a unifying factor for humanity, since the opposing sides after the end of the war, even after many years, at the subconscious level, continue to hate each other for the sacrifices and destruction inflicted on them. The allies, united by an external threat and common goals (the enemy), after the end of hostilities, begin to act independently, trying to get the maximum amount of dividends from victory just for themselves. All these reasons, in my opinion, lead to the separation of peoples, nations, and not to their consolidation, as Berdyaev believes.

The problem of Russian messianism is a key theme for the author, he writes: “Christian messianic consciousness can only be the consciousness that in the coming world epoch Russia is called to speak its word to the world, as the Latin world and the German world have already said. The Slavic race, headed by Russia, must reveal its spiritual potential, reveal its prophetic spirit. The Slavic race is replacing other races that have already played their role, already leaning towards decline; it is the race of the future. All great nations go through the messianic consciousness. This coincides with periods of special spiritual uplift, when the destinies of history call this people to do something great and new for the world. " It would be strange that Russia, with its difference from other countries, did not give the world something great and terrible. The change through rebellion of the political, economic and spiritual system in a single country, the creation of a coalition of dependent states, entailed such changes in the world that almost led to a nuclear war.

“The soul of Russia is not a bourgeois soul, it is a soul that does not bow before the golden calf, and for this alone one can love her endlessly. Russia is dear and loved in its monstrous contradictions, in its mysterious antinomy, in its mysterious spontaneity. "