Special features of Russian political culture: history and the modernity

Abstract

Introduction. The article is dedicated to the analysis of some basic characteristics of Russian political culture, in particular in the post October 1917 Revolution’ period. At the same time it was underlined that these characteristics were not a simple “print” of “October Revolution” but have their roots far in the past, including some ontologi­cal components. The basic elements of Russian po­litical culture (far from being fully described in this article) are presented with reference to the practice of Russian government’s activities. The controversial nature of correlation between Russian political cul­ture and radical changes in Russian politics in the 20th century was also put forward. Materials and methods. Methods of scientific cognition, abstraction, generalization, analysis, syn­thesis, and comparative methods were used in the course of research and presentation of the theoretical approaches of Russian and foreign researchers re­lated to “political culture”. Russian political history of XX century, and beyond, provided large scope of necessary materials for this article. Results of the study. The analysis of Russian political culture has as its outcome the presentation of a hierarchy of “elements” including the basic ones and many additional which are also present and acting in social and political practices in mod­ern Russia. Discussion and conclusions. The study shows that “political culture” is not only an abstract con­cept within a political science and theory, but also a very important “operational tool” for decision-making process and practice of government. The lack of an adequate perception of acting politi­cal culture by a political elite might create an im­portant distortion especially during radical social changes. In conclusion the author announced the topic of his further research on the “culture of Rus­sian foreign policy” based on the findings of this article.