Civilizational features of the development of Russia in the context of modern social transformations

Abstract

The article examines the main civilisational features of the development of Russia and their role in the modern socio-political transformations of Russian society. These features, according to the author, include the leading role of the state in the implementation of development projects and resource mobilisation; uneven socio-political development in time and space (development of society by impulses and jerks); combination in social dynamics of numerous opposite tendencies; periodic change of cultural and geopolitical vectors of development, caused by social delimitation and divisions. Arguments are given in favour of the fact that many of these features of the development of Russian society are due to the special, intermediate geographical, geopolitical and cultural-civilisational position of Russia between the civilisations of the West and the East. The author proves that a simple, uncritical borrowing and copying of Western political institutions without reformatting and adapting them to the conditions of modern Russia will either lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of these institutions, or to their serious degeneration and change. It is concluded that in the development and implementation of any projects of socio-political and economic development, it is essential to take into account both the general civilisational features of Russia and the internal Russian regional, local specifics, local socio-cultural norms and traditions, since their ignoring can lead to breaking the main social, cultural and value structures of Russian society.In addition, in modern conditions of global socio-political transformations and the numerous challenges associated with them it is extremely important for successful socio-political development to organically combine traditions with the necessary social innovations. However, as shown in the article, at present in Russia there is no such organic combination, and this seriously hinders socio-economic and cultural development. This implies the need to combine centralised planning and the development of federal development projects with the initiatives and proposals of local and regional communities, to focus not only on regional and local bureaucratic structures, but also on initiatives coming "from below" from groups of active citizens, from public organisations, volunteers and others. The author comes to the conclusion that this is especially important in the situation of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis socio-economic and political phenomena caused by it.