Rethinking and Reviving: The Modern Fate of Traditional Russian Values

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union provoked abrupt social transformations that brought the system into a state of extreme instability. The new situation re­quired Russia to search for new spiritual supports and a new spiritual impulse. At a sharp historical turning point, this role was assigned to traditional Russian values, which had to be rethought and revived. It was mainly about the return of the “Russian idea” to the field of public consciousness, about the revival of Orthodox ethics and the ideology of neoconservatism. The modern transfor­mation of traditional Russian values was supposed to give Russia the opportu­nity to embark on its own unique path, reassemble the “new Russia”, providing it with a new civilizational platform, a new academic orientation, and to form a secular psychological basis for the upcoming changes, which would become a serious barrier in confronting the challenges of European and American values. At the same time, the very possibility of such a transformation still rests on the inevitability of the prospect of turning Russian civilization into an empire, which causes concern. It is necessary to approach all this objectively in terms of reflexive and critical thinking