National Consciousness as a Factor of the Socio-Economic Development of Russia in the 17th — 19th Centuries

Abstract

Capitalist relations in Russia emerged and developed in the 17th — 19th centuries. These relations were superimposed on the specific features of the public consensus that was achieved in 16th century and predetermined the particularities of the national socio-economic model. The origins of this model goes back to the religious and ethical discourse of the 15th century, as well as to the understanding of the foundations and nature of Russian statehood of the 15th — 16th centuries. All these features led to the formation of certain attributes of national consciousness and had a significant impact on the nature of socio-economic institutions. The humanistic values of the Russian Middle Ages had arisen out of Orthodoxy. The collective humanism of the state and its religious and ethical mission gave a minor role to the development of individualistic principles, which, on the contrary, were of great significance in Western Europe. This article shows a set of historical and spiritual factors that have played an important role in the formation of specific national consciousness characteristics. The authors make an attempt to analyze the influence of such factors on the nature of the national socio-economic model and its development in Russia in the 16th — 19th centuries. The article proposes an original concept according to which, in the course of the historical development of Russia, the most important economic categories (property, wealth, labor, capital, economic activity) obtained not only an economic, but also a kind of ethical interpretation, that is, they can be considered both as economic concepts and as cultural and moral phenomena. The methods of identifying historical and spiritual dominant factors that influenced the formation of the Russian socio-economic model give new opportunities to study national peculiarities. These methods allow clarifying the historical and cultural institutional potential for creating an effective economic policy in Russia and other countries.