State and national culture in P.B. Struve’s writings (on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth)

Abstract

The author analyzes the views of the famous philosopher, sociologist and politician Petr Struve, whose ideas have enduring relevance in view of the problems of maintaining state unity and developing both culture and national identity. The main object of this research is Struve’s views on the essence of the state and national culture and on their role in the life of Russia. It is indicated that the position of the thinker presupposed a certain historiosophy – an interpretation of history as a process of development of spiritual culture. The features of Peter Struve’s liberal-conservatism and his understanding of the state as a “collective personality”, possessing a “superintelligent” nature are considered. The philosopher’s approach, which aimed at analyzing the seamless connection between state, culture and nationality is analyzed. The author considers how the thinker interpreted the essence of nationality and nationalism, as well as criticized the radical intelligentsia’s “official nationalism” and “absence of a feeling of national belonging”. She examines the philosopher’s views on the outstanding role of the state in Russian history and his understanding of such “fatal” reasons of its destruction as the insufficient involvement of the cultivated elements of the nobility in the ruling of the state as well as the belated abolition of serfdom law. The author also explains Struve’s views on the slogan of class struggle as decisively contributing to the cultural decomposition of the nation and to undermining the unity of the state. She also addresses the views of P.B. Struve, G.P. Fedotov and S.L. Frank concerning the reasons why the sense of national identity was weak in Russia. She concludes that, according to Struve, one of the reasons for the revolutionary radical upheavals in the country was the fact that the radical intelligentsia sowed in the broad masses of the people the ideological poison of “anti-state rebellion” and the “spirit of Bolshevism”. This contributed to a weak demand for national-state ideals and liberal-conservative ideas.