The Mobilization State as an Essential Characteristic of Russian Civilization: The Initial Stage of Formation

Abstract

The local-civilizational approach, shared by the author of the article, assumes the existence of various “cultural-historical types” (In the words of his pioneer N.Ya. Danilevsky), which have different “logics of culture” and types of “collective cognitive unconscious” (according to A.V. Smirnov). These qualitative differences formed under the influence of special climatic and geographical conditions (habitat), as well as historical Challenges and the Answers found to them (according to A. Toynbee), found their expression in political and economic institutions, algorithms for responding to crises. One of such institutions for the Russian civilization was the phenomenon of the mobilization state, born as a spontaneous response to a historical challenge, mentally and institutionally fixed later (as a tested means of response). In this article, using the method of historical reconstruction, the author stops at the initial stage of the formation of this very specific manifestation of traditional Russian collectivism.