Traditions of the Old Believers and the Fate of the Russian World in the XXI Century: Cultural and Philosophical Aspect

Introduction. Questions of continuity and cultural conservatism of the Russian society of the Modern era are one of the problems of the research in this article. The author suggests that the Old Russian religious and moral heritage was not completely destroyed by the Nikon church reforms in the Moscow state. The purpose of the article is to consider the diversity of forms of Russian religiosity in the context of the development of traditions of Russian society. Materials and Methods. In modern conditions, interest in religion and Old Believers continues to grow, as a rich cultural heritage of Russian society. Therefore, the appeal to the texts of the past in the philosophical method of dialogicality, hermeneutics, and a comprehensive analysis of the works of the Old Believers allows us to identify all the features of the heritage of the past of Russia. Results. The positions of the ethical and aesthetic consciousness of the schism teachers worried many Russian philosophers of the “Silver Age” era. The dramatic nature of the situation was that there was no complete reconciliation between the parties to the split in Russian spiritual thought. Discussion and Conclusion. Many of the ideas of Protopop Avvakum, one of the leaders of the Old Believers in Russia, continue to be relevant to the present day. The questions of the moral and socio-cultural identity of the Russians as the “last Orthodox kingdom” are of an eschatological nature. Many aspects of ritualism and rite-believing are preserved among the Russian people and among many Russian and foreign communities of believers. The confessional culture of the Old Russian epoch remains a mystery for many modern researchers and is of an actual nature, since many aspects of this problem remain poorly studied. The subject of the analysis of the influence of Old-Belief traditions on the fate of the spirituality of the Russian people is important.

CONSTANTS OF “THE BELKIN TALES” ARTISTIC WORLD: GOD, TSAR, FATHER

The article regards “The Belkin Tales” through the perspective of development of both sacred and ontological meanings in line with the real chronology of the publication of the tales. The author substantiates gradual and progressive revelation of the next three basic constants of the Pushkin’s world: God, Tsar, Father. In metaphysical context “The Belkin Tales” are manifested as “Father’s Tales”. “The Undetaker” depicts the story of the Father Adrian Prokhorov as victory over death and gloomy craftsmanship. The author points at wide autometapoetic background of the tale as a Pushkin’s literary manifest. The paper highlights the specific phenomenon of “The Belkin Tales” as well as its prominent ontology of the “high laugh”. The plots of the tales are often marked by religious and mystical patterns. To one extent or another, the tales under discussion reflect Pushkin’s initial complex promoting the idea of a creative game. “The Station Master” portrays Earth and Heavenly Fathers as various embodiments of genuineness: motives of cross and lamentation. The words of Derzhavin and Karamzin are associated with the narrative move of “The Belkin Tales”. “The Squire's Daughter” is considered the anthem to the abundant life of Russian people. “The Shot” highlights metaphysical conflict and its axiology. “The Blizzard” is read as embodiment of the whole paradigm of constant and hierarchic characters, when Motherland and Sovereign Ruler are portrayed as objects of poetic depiction. The tale is a clear reflection of the temple-related poetics. Parents’ blessing is shown in “The Blizzard” as a guarantee of the future happiness. In the final part of the “Belkin Tales” Pushkin seems to repudiate the authorship of the book, manifesting his prescription as scripting. In Pushkin’s artistic system the Creator is of much higher rank than the scriptor. The Creator is considered to be a real Author. “The Belkin Tales” are regarded as Pushkin’s peculiar historiography with sacrosanctity of three constants such as God, Tsar, Father.

RUSSIAN DRAMA DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR OF 1853–1856

The Crimean War of 1853–1856 became a real challenge for Russian society and was reflected in the culture and art of that time, including drama. Already during the war, plays dedicated to this historical event were being created and staged in theatres. This article analyses four plays – “For the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland” by Pyotr Grigor’yev, “The Veteran and the Recruit” by Aleksey Pisemsky, “The Feat of the Mother” by Orest Miller, “The Russians in 1854” by Adelaida Tal’tseva. The general ideological message of those dramatic works included patriotism, glorification of the greatness of the Fatherland and the strength of the Russian people, the Orthodox faith, in connection with which the plays created the image of a Russian soldier for whom participation in the war is a matter of honour and faith. The study establishes the correspondence of dramatic works of the period of the Crimean War of 1853–1856 to the requirements of the time, their close connection with the historical context of the era, as well as an orientation towards ease of perception by the audience. The author of the article defines the general features of patriotic plays of the Crimean War period at the plot and ideological level.

Nikolai Berdyaev – from Will to Culture Towards Will to Live

Nikolai Berdyaev was a philosopher who treated the “objectivity of creative work” with disparagement. This article focuses on his attitude to culture as a “mediocre”, “intermediary” affair, and as something unworthy of particular attention respectively. Berdyaev describes the Russian people as always discontented with culture exactly because of its “mediocrity”. The author points out the duality between lived reality and culture as inalienably inherent to Russian spirituality informing great creative works, which, however, are not culture, insofar as they are aiming at the religious transformation of life.

Oriental Elements of Russian Folk Speech and Folklore

This study analyses the Eastern character of the Russian folklanguage and folklore which connected whith the character of national mentality. The cultural contacts of Russian people with the Turkish and Finno-Ugrian people in the Volga basin were presented by N. S.Troubetzkoy (1927) who formed the new theory-from Russian culture. Our scientific investigation of the Russian folklanguage and folklore is motivated by the works, which demonstrated the insufficiency of this domain. The results of our comparative investigation prove the Eastern traits of Russian folklanguage and folklore, namely, we discovered the parallel structures in the Eastern languages and folklore.

F.M. Dostoevsky on the Reasons for "Remarkable Dislike" Europe to Russia

The relevance of the article is due to the authors attempt to apply some of the philosophical concepts of F.M. Dostoevsky to the comprehension of contemporary sociocultural reality. The purpose of this study is to clarify the reasons for the historically unfriendly attitude of Europe towards Russia by analyzing the works of F.M. Dostoevsky dedicated to this problem. In the process of writing the article, the published Diaries of the writer were used; diary entries unpublished during the writer's life; philosophical reflections contained in works of art, as well as applied modern scientific and popular science literature dedicated to the work of F.M. Dostoevsky. In the course of the analysis, it was found that the writer considered historical, confessional and moral reasons to be the main factors in the rejection of Russia by Europe, while he especially singled out disinterestedness incomprehensible to Europe as a characteristic of the Russian people. The authors draws attention to the fact that all the reasons for Europe's "remarkable dislike" for Russia, about which F.M. Dostoevsky, directly or indirectly associated with the Orthodox faith. Therefore, an attempt to actualize the worldview heritage of the great writer will certainly lead us to a dilemma: either to move from thoughts and words to actions, to religiously enlighten both ourselves and Europe; or to enclose our Orthodox heritage in a historical and cultural framework, eliminating the source of the reasons for our rejection by the European public, with all the ensuing consequences.

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AS A REFLECTION OF THE PECULIARITIES OF NATIONAL THINKING

The article notes the interrelation of language, culture and thinking. Some stable linguistic expressions that convey the meanings of specific phenomena in Russian and English are considered and reflect the phenomena of the surrounding world through the features of the transfer of values inherent in a particular country. The analysis of influence of mentality on features of national thinking is given. The factors that determine the formation of the national mentality and mentality of the Russian people are described. Features of features of Russian people in comparison with features of the American people are resulted.

Traditions and the Imagined Past in Russian Anastasian Intentional Communities

This article* deals with the concept of tradition and the interpretation of the Vedic past in Russian intentional communities. The movement is based on the book series The Ringing Cedars of Russia (Zvenyashchiye kedry Rossii) by Vladimir Megre published in the 1990s. The main heroine of these books is Anastasia, who shares with the author her knowledge of the ancient ancestors. Some readers take her advice and build a new kind of intentional community – ‘kin domain’ settlements (rodovyye pomestiya). The Anastasians tend to restore lost traditions, which are usually associated with Russia’s pre-Christian past. Traditional culture is understood as a conservative and utopian lifestyle that existed in the Vedic Age during the time of the Vedrus people. The commodification of local culture and tradition is one of the resources that ecovillagers try to use. The ‘traditional’ and ‘organic’ labels increase the price of many of their goods and services. One of the most popular products made by intentional communities is Ivan-chay (‘Ivan tea’), declared an indigenous and authentic beverage of the Russian people.

What Is a “Minority” in an Imperial Formation?

Is minority a term applicable to groups in the Russian Empire, as an imperial formation? This article seeks to answer this question by engaging with two others: (1) Was there a term (or terms) that conveyed that idea? And, (2) Was there a historical experience among particular segments of that society with attributes that we may associate with “minorities”? The article proposes that, on the one hand, there can be no minorities unless a majority has itself come into being, and, on the other, that growing association of the state with the Russian people specifically, and the claim that other East Slavs were also Russian despite regional particularities, along with efforts to create a kind of citizenship through institutions that were inclusive of non-Russian peoples, began to constitute such a majority and minorities in Russia.

The “Slavic issue” and academic archaeology in the Crimea in the aftermath of World War II. To the 120th anniversary of Pavel Nikolaevich Shultz (1901–1983)

The actualization of the "Slavic issue" in the post-war Crimea took place at the background of the rise of patriotic sentiments in society. This contributed to the establishment of the Sector of History and Archaeology in the Crimean Research Base at the USSR Academy of Sciences under P.N. Shultz in 1947. The issue in question was developed based on the “Scythian” ethnogenetic myth and autochthonous theories of N.Ya. Marr. The applied task of the studies was to popularize the history of Crimea in close connection with the fate of the Slavs and the Russian people among the settlers who came to the peninsula after the eviction of the Crimean Tatars. These views are most succinctly expressed in the book by P.N. Nadinsky “Studies on the history of the Crimea” (part 1, 1951). During the anti-Marr campaign, the point of Scythian-Slavic kinship in Crimea was rejected. Following the transfer of the peninsula to the Ukrainian SSR, the issue gradually lost its relevance.