Kamaludin Gadzhiev Reflections on the Features of the National Identity of Russia

Kamaludin Gadzhiev

doi:10.11648/j.ss.20190803.16

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze some, in the opinion of the author, peculiarities of Russia's national identity, which can shed additional light on the current state and prospects of the Russian national idea and Russian statehood. In the most brief form touching upon its historical roots, the main attention is focused on those endogenous factors that determined the ambivalent nature of Russia's national identity. It, as shown in the article, is manifested in the organic combination of the most contradictory components of a very complex, multi-layered, heterogeneous sociocultural and political-cultural matrix of Russia. In this regard, it is emphasized that each of its basic elements has its own antithesis. The validity of this thesis provides a number of examples, among which, for example, antitheses: statism-anarchism, conservatism-radicalism, chauvinism-internationalism, discontinuity-continuity, unity-fragmentation, etc. Considerable attention is paid to such a component of Russian identity as fragmentation, which is determined by the whole complex naturally-geographical, ethno-national, socio-cultural and other factors. In many ways, these and other factors related to them explain one of the key features of the Russian Federation, the essence of which lies in its asymmetry, which is expressed in the complex state structure, which more or less significantly differs from most modern federations. It is shown that one of the key endogenous factors arising from these realities is the situation in which the formation of all-Russian national identity is carried out at three different levels: ethnic, intermediate and all-Russian. It is concluded that the Russian national identity and, accordingly, the civil-political national state are still in the process of formation.

Highlights

Before each generation of Russians, the sacramental question arose: “Who are we?” Concerning the “amazing sense of history”, as one of the essential features of Russian culture, all generations of Russians in one form or another were interested in the question formulated by the famous chronicler of the first Annals of Ancient Russia "Tale of Bygone Years": "where did the Russian land come from?" A well-known Russian religious philosopher of the late 19th – early 20th centuries V
He was from head to toe the personification of that not very common human type, which is called Russian European - a definition in which an adjective is just as important as a noun” [16]
Churchill, distinguished by vivid memorable aphorisms, called Russia "a mystery wrapped in Kamaludin Gadzhiev: Kamaludin Gadzhiev Reflections on the Features of the National Identity of Russia mystery and placed inside a puzzle." And R

Summary

Introduction

Before each generation of Russians, the sacramental question arose: “Who are we?” Concerning the “amazing sense of history”, as one of the essential features of Russian culture, all generations of Russians in one form or another were interested in the question formulated by the famous chronicler of the first Annals of Ancient Russia "Tale of Bygone Years": "where did the Russian land come from?" A well-known Russian religious philosopher of the late 19th – early 20th centuries V. Spengler adhered to the opposite point of view In his opinion, “the Russian spirit in its roots is absolutely opposite to the European one. “the Russian spirit in its roots is absolutely opposite to the European one In all his essence, he was from head to toe the personification of that not very common human type, which is called Russian European - a definition in which an adjective is just as important as a noun” [16]. Churchill, distinguished by vivid memorable aphorisms, called Russia "a mystery wrapped in Kamaludin Gadzhiev: Kamaludin Gadzhiev Reflections on the Features of the National Identity of Russia mystery and placed inside a puzzle." And R Kipling in his story "The Former" put the question like this: who are the Russians: "the most eastern of European nations or the most western of eastern nations". It is known that the Russians themselves like to call their country mysterious, to the place and out of place quoting Tyutchev's "Mind cannot understand Russia"

The Antinomies of the National Identity of RUSSIA

On the Peculiarities of the Formation of the National Identity of Russia

Findings

Conclusions