Friedrich Nietzsche’s Philosophy as a Mirror of Designing of Post-Soviet National Identity of Russia

Abstract

Attention of the author of the article is concentrated on the process of forming of Post-Soviet
Russian identity that is presented through a prism of Russian Nietzscheanism. In the intellectual
history of our country for the last twenty fi ve years we could observed the most essential stages of
the recurrence of reception of Nietzsche’sideas in Russia. During this time there was an ideological
transformation of Russian identity from formula “Russia is One of Branches of the Western
Civilization” to formula «Russia is the suffi cient independent from the Western One Civilization –
“The Big Russian World”». The concept of the Independent Russian Civilization dominates in
current political and cultural discourse. The author argued that a positive or negative assessment
of philosophical heritage of Nietzsche by Russian thinkers depends on the search of the Russian
identity as a way of westernization of Russia, or, on the contrary, as a view on Russia as not-Europe.
The author believes that, despite current recession, the interest in Nietzsche’s Philosophy will be
starting gaining steam again. Russia is a European country, so, Nietzsche will be demanded in Russia.