“Civilization” and Civilizational Evolution of Russia

Abstract

The article analyzes the problem of productivity of using a civilizational ap­proach to the analysis of the current state of Russia and its history. The content of the term “civilization” is discussed. The necessity of understanding civili­zation in two modes of implementation is proved: as a process and as a state. “Civilization” is interpreted by the author as an interdisciplinary category to de­note the diversity of cultural and historical types of development of economi­cally and politically connected large communities of people and/or their aggre­gates (communities), subjectively and symbolically integrated into a relatively unified whole through historical and social imagination, cultural meanings, val­ues and norms that serve as the cause, purpose and basis for the organization and functioning of these communities. This definition is concretized by revealing the dialectics of the relationship of social, cultural, cognitive and institutional components of “civilization” using the example of Russia in the historical range from Kievan Rus to the modern Russian Federation. The most important institu­tional factors in the formation and development of civilizations, their interaction and expansion over long distances were “universal States” – “kingdoms” and “empires”. Studying the formation and development of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire and the USSR, the author comes to the conclusion that historically these political forms had several civilizational embodiments.