FIN DE SIÈCLE, MODERNISM, MULTIPLE MODERNITIES AND DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THEM IN THE RUSSIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

Abstract

The paper covers the discussions about the Modern Style and Modernity in the Russian historiography. The terms Modern Style, Modern Style Culture, Fin de siecle determine the turn of XIX-XX centuries, while the concept of Fin de siècle is quite popular in the Western historiography. As for the term "Belle Époque" is concerned it is less common in the Western historiography. The theory of multiple modernities raises the question of autonomy of the social institutions' evolution and the development of the cultural and symbolic area, including in the late-Imperial Russia. The combination of westernization and Empire modernization triggered different sociocultural trends: Empire construction was the primary imperative for some, while others voted for the reforms bringing together Russia and European modernity models, and the revolutionary westernization served to be the third force. It is seen to be quite reasonable to distinguish the rationalization and traditionalism in a modernized society, including in the art. Modernism which re-interprets all previous basics of the arts and has its purpose "to be" rather than "to mean" comes from philosophical, scientific, social, and political prerequisites.