Differences in the civilizational development of the West and the east of Europe (Russia)

Abstract

In the conditions of the SVO, interest in civilizational differences has grown, the course "Fundamentals of Russian Statehood" has been introduced in universities. The article substantiates the thesis that the culture of the Russian civilization (in the spheres of religion, literacy, writing, law, world perception, art, education systems, science, crafts, etc.) rose from the culture of the GreekByzantine civilization. The differences between Greece and Rome in ancient times, Russia from the West of Europe in the Middle Ages, Russia from Western civilization in modern and postmodern times are shown. The differences in the interpretation of Christianity in Catholicism-Protestantism from Orthodoxy are highlighted. From the slavery of Rome, the domination of the barbarians, the crusades, the Inquisition, the witch hunt, absolute scholasticism in philosophy, papocaesarism with its absolutism of papal power and totalitarian attitude towards the flock-subjects and – most importantly – genocide against "their" and other peoples arose. In contrast, Byzantium and Russia with their "caesaropapism" and "symphony of the authorities" relied on a sensitive borrowing of customs and culture of neighbors, the receptivity of other views and beliefs. Thanks to this, the West has always been rigidly antipathetic to any deviations from the "general line" of power, up to total terror, fascism, Nazism, racism and the slave trade. The Russian civilization, relying on the values of ancient Greece and Byzantium and the Mongolian Yassa, preferred the values of empathy (internationalism and collectivism) and therefore was guided primarily by the New Testament. It is this axiological contradiction that determines the age-old Russophobia of the West in relation to Russia, which prevents the legitimization of racism-hegemonism of the West.