Introduction by Olga Andreeva
Exactly a year ago in the summer, I saw Vanessa Guazzelli Paim for the first time. We met in Moscow, where she arrived after a month of living in St. Petersburg. My Facebook friend brought us together and asked me to show Vanessa Moscow. You must like each other – a distant Facebook friend mysteriously explained his plan. And so it happened. Vanessa humbly walked with me for dozens of kilometers around old Moscow, scorched by the summer heat, and listened to my lengthy stories about the past and present of the Russian capital. My English is terrible, but it turned out to be our only opportunity to overcome the language barrier. For the patience with which Vanessa listened to my helpless babble, she deserves a separate monument.
Occasionally, sparing my ears unaccustomed to English speech, Vanessa shared her impressions of Russia, St. Petersburg and Moscow. And I was amazed at the depth and sincerity with which she responds to everything she sees and hears. So far, all my contacts with foreigners have been quite superficial. I am used to the fact that any foreign tourist rushes to the Red Square in Moscow and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. This is usually the end of the acquaintance with Russian culture and history. But Vanessa was a clear exception. She has seriously set herself the task of understanding Russia and Russians. She was brilliantly familiar with modern Russian politics and economics, often surprising me with her knowledge of the names and diverse points of view of our leaders. She was well versed in the history of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which is far from obvious to a Westerner who is being manipulated by all the world's media. She did not need to explain anything, prove anything, she did not need to bring dozens of historical references down on her head and immerse herself in all the vicissitudes of relations between Russia and Ukraine. She already knew all this. Vanessa set herself a higher-order task. She wanted to understand not only the current moment of Russian history. She wanted to understand the nature and essence of Russian civilization, which she believed was radically different from the Western one. In this civilizational difference, she saw something like hope for all mankind. "Russia will save us!" she often said, and I blushed in response: Russians hardly tolerate any pathos, it's easier for us to be ironic and witty than brutally serious. But Vanessa wanted to understand, and jokes would be inappropriate.
So we walked around Moscow for about two months, until my new friend left for St. Petersburg, and then for her homeland. Since then, we have continued to communicate on social networks, like good old friends, waiting for Vanessa to come to Russia again. But this fall I was asked to give a short lecture on the nature of Russian civilization in an academic city near Moscow. I immediately thought of Vanessa and her civilizational way of knowing Russia. To complete the picture, I asked her to write about her impressions. That's how this text was born, which you can read below.
I was so excited by Vanessa's monologue that I not only read this text in full to a Russian audience on October 10, but also wrote two small experiences of my own view of Russian civilization. Our example turned out to be contagious. My old friend from St. Petersburg, poet, historian and essayist Andrei Polonsky soon joined our intercontinental dialogue and wrote about his vision of Russia. As a result, a trialogue consisting of four texts was developed. We present them to your court.
The clash with the West helped the Russians realize their civilizational value
Vanessa Guazzelli Paim
Originally published on Vzglyad
No wonder the Russian language is one of the foundational languages of the multipolar world coming into existence.
Language shapes culture and is shaped by it, by the collective fabric of the unconscious, which French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan would describe as being structured as language. Much of a culture is revealed in its words and its signifiers, in how they articulate to convey meanings.
World in Russian: Мир. Peace in Russian: Мир.
Also world in Russian: Свет. Light in Russian: Свет.
I don’t mean to go woke here, but… It is what it is: in Russian culture, the world happens to be conceived as peace and as light. The Russian culture conceives the world as peace, and peace as possible for the world – not only for the individual or the nation, but for the world. The Russian culture conceives the world as light, and light as a collective dimension. That is how the collective is conceived in Russian civilization.
The Russian civilization – an invitation marks its beginning. How civilized an inaugural act when, in 862 AD, Rurik is invited to lead the Rus. Not by oppression or forceful domination, but by invitation, to reign and secure the domains, making Novgorod the new home - дом.
Russia now is East and West, Europe and Asia. The immense Eurasian nation in its enriching historical layers, results now in the Russian Federation, such a unique combination of flavors, with undeniably interesting achievements in all its eras – including those by outstanding rulers, such as the great Peter and the great Catherine; and those achievements by the very collective upfront, when the first people’s republics took place. Each historical period could be subjected to criticism. There’s always that which could be improved. But the very combination of the different collective experiences through time forge a nation, refined both by the glory of achievements and the hardships of lessons learned.
The first anti-colonialist nation in the world, Russia dared to give birth to the first communist experience. It was the USSR who inspired China in its search for a better system, which nowadays pays off, improving the lives of hundreds of millions. Of course there were mistakes, how could there not have been? It was so new! Yet, how interesting a civilization the Soviet peoples built, beyond what had so far been conceived – amongst its emblematic prowesses, Sputnik, the first satellite. Sacrifices were many and, for that very reason, the achievements should not ever be disregarded.
Russia also went full-on into neo-liberal capitalism, tasted it no holds barred, dived into the experience – and learned.
Russian people got to see what the Western concept of “competitive market” means. But Russians happened to have, by experience, another register operating in them as well – the register of cooperation. That set the difference between monopolies in service of greed, and monopolies that result from the development of the best for the nation’s interest.
That brings me to a very important word in Russian culture nowadays: профессиональный (professional) – and also высокопрофессиональный (highly professional). For Russians, a fundamental component of one’s dignity is to be professional. Whatever you do, be professional. It is one’s duty to give one’s best, and Russians know it.
And, sometimes, Russians might also be a bit too hard on themselves, highly critical of themselves and the country. That happens as well. However, facing Western Russophobia and Western economic-cultural-military war against the motherland has helped many realize and better own Russia’s worth – but it’s still a lesson in process.
In Patriarch Park, editor Berlioz and writer Ivan Bezdomny respond differently to their encounter with Woland. Bulgakov’s Master and Margarida conveys a warning – one who does not acknowledge the existence of God, of the Divine in life, might also fail to perceive the devil’s tricks. Moreover, foreign evil only thrives if one’s own ethics succumbs. No one can defeat a Russia that knows itself and honors its principles, its values.
One of Russia’s values, it seems to me, is Russian faith – if not in God, in the motherland, in the greater force of life, despite all odds.
As much value is given to education, all Russians can read and write. Shockingly, that is not the case in all rich and developed Western countries, such as the United States, where 21% of adults are illiterate in 2024, and 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2024-2025-where-we-are-now ).
The multipolar world in the making is build on a very concrete dimension, the economy of real assets and very pragmatic principles, such as indivisible security. Nonetheless, it is also made of the capacity to conceive, to imagine – and deliver. In that regard, too, the contributions Russia brings to the table are, in fact, plenty. The enchanting St Petersburg, how it was built and how it was rebuilt after the horrific siege its people endured, is inspiring to the eyes and to the soul. May Gaza also, one day, rise from the ashes so beautifully.
Together, Moscow and St Petersburg are, unmistakably, my two favorite cities in the whole wide world. As a woman, never have I felt so safe in my feminine nature as in Russia. Safe and free. Free to be fully feminine and, yet, safe. Free to be both strong and expressive, and delicately feminine as well. In Russia, I never felt like I had to guard my femininity, for the risk of being taken as prey. I felt appreciated but respected, not in danger. Neither did I feel like the strength of one’s character was unwelcomed. From my very first days in Russia, I noticed how women can be both feminine and strong in this society.
And what a society. The sense of communion experienced at the theatre, for the ballet or the opera, is so fine…! Very different felling than being in a Western theatre, I must say. But not only in the theatre. This deep, unspoken sense of community can be perceived in everyday-life situations, like taking the metro. It can be lived in a very concrete manner, when ladies offer help to a foreign younger woman who has hurt her foot and discretely limps on a Saint Petersburg sidewalk. Or when a man. sharing a double cabin on the night train with a foreign woman, makes her not defensive, but acts so respectfully, she feels protected. When, in Moscow, a series of gentlemen of different ages offer to carry a foreign lady’s luggage – out of the train, out of the station, down the stairs – simply because they are men, physically stronger, and were able to help.
No fake smiles in Russian ethics. But genuinely fraternal eyes are a common feature. One cultural trait I found quite enchanting is how Russians aren’t afraid of genuine emotions. Far from being cold, they respect sincerity. I find Russian people to be quite percipient and responsive to what is expressed in sincerity – be the expression demure or intense, if there’s sincerity, your claim or expression is likely to be heard, considered, respected. Call it emotional maturity.
Despite today’s Russophobia in the West, and regardless of having to defend the motherland from foreign invasion a few times in history, Russian culture allows for the existence of the other, of another, a fellow human being. The Russian word Другой (another) contains the word друг (friend) in it – the Russian words for another and friend have the same root, sounding quite similar. The other in Russian is, in principle, a potential friend.
What about the self, what about the individual in Russia? In my personal experience, I found Russian people to be truly respectful of privacy, not intrusive at all, although not individualistic as people in Western societies tend to be.
Я, the word for I, happens to be also the last letter in the Russian alphabet. Last letter?! Western fearsome emphasis on individualism might find this a horrible place to be. But, mind you, it is no mediocre position. Every writer knows the last phrase or word can be even more important than the first. It sets the tone that will echo while all that came before is being assimilated. To be the last is a highly polite, noble, heroic place to be. It means you can hold the door for the whole alphabet, and a whole alphabet of ancestors has got your back.
And what an interesting alphabet it is! It allows a meaningful place for я (ya), for the individual subject, backed by the whole collective of letters. While the Russian language conceives a friendly place for the other, a world meant as light and a world meant for peace.
These are some of the contributions of the Russian world (Мир, Свет).
What is Russia to me? It is trust, faith. I trust the Russian soul – wide expense for dreams and for living. Strength given by fidelity to it.
Russian Gravity
Olga Andreeva
Originally published on Vzglyad
When it comes to Russian civilization, we always run the risk of falling into that zone of imagination where wishful thinking is easily given out as reality. The desire to make our love for the motherland not metaphysical, but specifically material, often leads us into the wilds of not particularly responsible propaganda. That is why living and authentic evidence of what is usually spoken about purely metaphorically is so valuable. They are incredibly rare. But there are strange approaches, Pushkin said, and people of culture understand what he is talking about. I want to tell you about one of these approaches now.
Vladimir Nabokov has a wonderful, but not the most famous novel called "Feat". This is the story of a young man whose mother took him out of Russia, engulfed by revolutionary fire, at the age of 16. On the way to Crimea, the boy had seen enough of the horrors of red and white life, and therefore left his homeland in confused reverie –what kind of country is this? Nevertheless, his subsequent fate was extremely successful. The wealthy brother of the boy's father hospitably opens the doors of his luxurious chalet in Switzerland to a mother and son who have lost all their fortune. The life of a Russian nephew turns into a quiet and virtuous paradise: tennis courts, morning horseback riding, admission to Cambridge, books, foreign languages, the venerable Swiss society of rich old men. In Cambridge, too, everything is quiet and virtuous: first friends, first love. Everything is somehow measured and rather boring.
Somewhere in the middle of this almost eventless descriptive novel, the reader begins to wonder why he is reading all this. Nabokov's main character, a growing up young man, is distinguished neither by audacity of temper, nor by heroism, nor by an exotic character. Rather, he is in a strange state of confusion, constantly asking himself – who is he, where is he from, and why is he here at all?
The whole novel turns out to be written for the sake of the last five pages. From them we learn that a young man standing on the threshold of a brilliant career of a wealthy Swiss aristocrat suddenly disappears. The investigation reveals that the hero has been carefully preparing for escape for several months. He bought maps, met with different people, made supplies, until finally he bought a peasant dress and crossed the Russian border. There, in revolutionary Russia, the hero disappears, leaving relatives and friends in complete perplexity – what could attract a happy inhabitant of the Swiss Alps into the dark, wild and impoverished country of the Soviets?
Nabokov unobtrusively hints to the reader that the main temptation experienced by his hero lies in the presence of meaning. It was Russia, so dysfunctional, filled with inescapable tragedy… And, yet, only she could give him the right to a meaningful and passionate existence, which happy Switzerland simply did not know. This phenomenon could be called Russian gravity. It does not always work and not at all. But emigrants are most familiar with it.
Anyway, when I finished reading Nabokov, I was sure that the great writer had come up with a brilliant metaphor for his nostalgia, embodying in the hero an impossible dream of returning to his homeland. After all, for a resident of Russia, which over the past century has not got out of its chronic distress, it is difficult to imagine a real young man abandoning a Swiss chalet for the modest and unguaranteed joys of meaningfulness.
That's exactly what I thought until I read Andrei Trubetskoy's memoirs called "The Ways Are Inscrutable." Andrei Vladimirovich Trubetskoy, the son of the writer Vladimir Trubetskoy, unlike Nabokov's hero, had a huge list of personal claims against the Soviet government. His father and sister Varvara were shot in 1937, his sister Alexandra and mother died in custody, and his brother Grigory spent 10 years in the camps. However, the biography of Trubetskoy Jr. does not sound at all like a warlike song of hatred for the motherland.
In 1939, 18-year-old Andrei was sent to the army. And in the summer of 1941, Andrei was seriously wounded. He woke up already in captivity. At the beginning of the war, the International Red Cross was still working in the territories occupied by the Germans and was receiving Russian prisoners of war for treatment. Trubetskoy was admitted to the Red Cross hospital in Poland, where he spent several months. There, all patients were provided with qualified supervision and treatment. However, Soviet prisoners who were discharged automatically ended up in camps, where they most likely starved to death. Trubetskoy had to share their fate. Fate nevertheless preserved him. Just a few days before his discharge, he was found by a distant relative who had a small estate in Poland near the Belarusian border. The new uncle took Andrei to his place and finally put him on his feet. While Andrei was gaining strength on the village's fresh milk, his uncle sent him German documents and the former prisoner became a full-fledged citizen of occupied Europe.
After recovering his health, the young Trubetskoy went on a trip to France, Austria and Germany, where the numerous and highly wealthy relatives of the Princes Trubetskoy lived. He was introduced to the most aristocratic houses in Paris and Vienna. He knew the languages, the documents were in order, so Andrei had no problems with getting a very tempting job. His relatives vied with each other to offer him shelter and a dust-free service. The trips to Europe lasted more than a year. And then the young Trubetskoy unexpectedly returned to his uncle's Polish estate, contacted local partisans, stocked up on peasant clothes and fled to the forest. The partisans helped him cross the front line, so Trubetskoy ended the war the same way he started - as a Red Army soldier.
It is not difficult to imagine what happened to him next. After the war, he was imprisoned, but Stalin died soon after, and mass rehabilitation began. Trubetskoy returned, got married, graduated from college and became a serious scientist. And this is no longer a fantasy of a great writer, but a real biography of a very real person.
It turns out that Nabokov did not invent anything. Russian gravity really exists. Our Russian genetic habit of standing on the threshold of great history often does not promise us well-being. But it is always guaranteed to make our lives full of passionate reflection. The stories of Nabokov and Andrei Trubetskoy show that passion often wins in the competition with bourgeois well-being. The main thing is to preserve this sense of homeland and one's own Russianness. Then you will definitely not find yourself on the sidelines of life.
Sleeping Beauty
Olga Andreeva
Originally published on Vzglyad
Russian society, like perhaps any other, has several levels of self-reflection and behavioral responsibility. This historically embedded depth goes back to a certain civilizational ontology, which is difficult to fix in everyday external manifestations.
Once, in an interview, the St. Petersburg philosopher Alexander Sekatsky told me that society does not have correct scientific methods to capture its hidden capabilities. Sociological methods are accurate and good only for describing his present state here and now, but not what lies under a bushel and can manifest itself at any moment. And under the bush of Russian civilization lies a constant readiness for mobilization. One day, society hears a certain call, responds to it and changes overnight to the point that its former state seems completely impossible. Nikolai Danilevsky called this ability for instantaneous change nonviolence. In his interpretation, this is not peacefulness at all, but the ability to change rapidly, without resistance, provided that the new state is in accordance with society's internal idea of what is due. The call in this case may be a combination of circumstances that is predicted only by those who see the ghostly and vague features of Russian civilization. Sociology is powerless here.
In 2006, Russia joined the so-called European Social Research, which has been conducted in Europe since 2001. This study, covering up to 3,000 thousand people in each participating country, is designed to represent the deepest and most complete portrait of society. Public surveys are conducted every two years. The results of the ESI are a sociological maximum, the main thing that a sociologist can know about Russia.
What is the portrait of Russian society? He's sad. Right up to the beginning of the SVO, sociologists were talking about the same thing. Our main universally recognized value is money and only money. Fanatical devotion to money correlates with an extremely low level of charity. Our society is painfully divided, all the grassroots horizontal ties in it have long been destroyed. The Russian population has only one common feeling – a sense of injustice to the way it is organized. This sense of injustice is directly proportional to the level of professionalism: the more qualified an employee is, the more dissatisfied he is with his position. The underlying irritation results in mutual aggressiveness of all strata of society. Everyone is at war with everyone: rich with poor, men with women, officials with business, seniors with juniors. Society is so divided that no protest in the country is possible in principle. To do this, we need to organize, but we are not capable of this.
This sad picture is compounded by the predatory joy with which journalists rush at it. The leadership of the EU hates journalists. And there is a reason. As soon as the next report is released, bloodthirsty articles appeared in all the media about how mercantile and aggressive these Russians are. Any responsible sociologist had a heart attack here. Because these surveys are one thing, and interpreting the results is quite another. Polls, sociologists say, only signal problems. Finding their cause is the task of the interpreter. And now, at the stage of understanding the results, the picture of Russian society seems completely different. We are not at all mercantile, sociologists are convinced. It's just that our catastrophically rapid transition from socialism to capitalism has turned money into a fetish. Our ability to help each other has not gone away either. But life is so hard that for many it's not about charity, but about survival. Until the very beginning, our society did not like itself and was deeply convinced that its true face was completely different.
Our national hero, as follows from the value preferences of Russians, is beautiful and perfect. His portrait is easy to read. He is a middle-aged man, a private entrepreneur, a wealthy, but not insanely rich man who has achieved everything himself. He is engaged in charity work, believes in God, has a large friendly family, which he adores. He goes to theaters and movies with his wife and children, reads a lot, and likes to travel. This wonderful man has only one drawback – none of the interviewees knows him. This is our dream, but not our reality.
Rosstat can easily show us the reality. The largest social group in Russia are women over 50, with an incomplete child, incomplete higher education, single, leading a closed lifestyle and barely making ends meet. Literally everyone knows these women.
However, all this has long been in the past. The latest data from the ECI refers to 2021. The research site has not been updated for a long time and under the conditions of sanctions, there is every reason to believe that the project will simply be closed. But it would be interesting to see new data from sociologists. Let's take the liberty to look into the future and imagine a portrait of Russia that scientists could see now. It seems that our generation has the honor to hear the mysterious call that turns on the mechanism of rapid nonviolent change in society. This call was the beginning of its own, which the country perceived not at all as a war, but as the restoration of justice that was once trampled upon.
Since February 2022, our society has turned into the complete opposite of its former self. Where has our famous commercialism gone! The amount of financial support for the front is estimated in billions. Completely absent horizontal connections suddenly developed into a huge number of volunteer communities. Literally in every locality, camouflage nets are being woven, trench candles are being made, humanitarian aid is being collected, and volunteer detachments are being formed. Tens of millions of people turned out to be united by a common goal and a common passion – to help the front, everything for victory. The society, crushed by daily problems, suddenly woke up, began to raise its voice, to note the shortcomings of the work of the authorities and at the same time rallied around the Kremlin as never before. The personal grievances of professionals and the sense of injustice have long been forgotten. Now we have something to think about and do.
Surprisingly, the same Russian prince suddenly appeared from the former social oblivion – a successful private entrepreneur, an Orthodox benefactor and the creator of a large strong family. It is he who we see on the fronts and at the head of volunteer movements. Now he does not hide in the labyrinths of family happiness, but stands tall, leading others. What about our elderly single women? They are not so lonely anymore. Hundreds of thousands of such women weave nets and carry Maviki by the ribbon.
The mysterious call sounded. Sleeping beauty Russia woke up and smiled to herself. Do we recognize in this beautiful woman the Russia of two years ago? And that's what she is. Who among sociologists could have predicted such a radical change of milestones? These are definitely not the employees of the ESI. Western experts could not have predicted such changes either. They counted on public outrage, internal conflicts, and hatred of the authorities, but they received exactly the opposite – unity, self-esteem, mutual support and cohesion.
What is Russian civilization?
Andrei Polonsky
Originally published on Zvglyad
In the 21st century, the civilizational approach to history and our current existence has become a byword. With Huntington's light hand, we reflect on the Clash of Civilizations, major international political and cultural forums, scientific round tables and conferences are held on the topic of civilizations. And of course, the most important question for us is about Russian civilization, about its characteristic features, highlighted differences. How is it that we are not them; not "they" – the West, not "they" – the East? Where does the separation line lie and why is it essential for us?
Due to geography and history, Russian civilization is the ultimate, it is on the border (of the possible). One moment, a delay, a breakdown – and it will be too late.
Even in the "Word of Law and Grace", the first significant monument of Russian literature, Metropolitan Hilarion recalls the evangelical parable about the workers of the eleventh hour, which became the heartfelt focus of the Easter Message of John Chrysostom, which is read in every Orthodox Church on the night of the Resurrection of Christ.
"The kingdom of heaven is like the master of the house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers in his vineyard, and, having agreed with the workers for a denarius a day, sent them to his vineyard; going out about three o'clock, he saw others standing idly in the marketplace, and said to them: go also into my vineyard, and what It will follow, I will give it to you. They went. Going out again around the sixth and ninth hours, he did the same. Finally, going out about the eleventh hour, he found others standing idly, and said to them: Why are you standing here idly all day? They tell him: no one hired us. He says to them, "Go also into my vineyard, and you will receive what follows." But when evening came, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: call the workers and give them their wages, starting from the last to the first. And those who came about the eleventh hour received a denarius each. But those who came first thought that they would receive more, but they also received a denarius; and when they received it, they began to murmur against the owner of the house and said: these last worked for one hour, and you have compared them with us who have endured the burden of the day and the heat. In response, he said to one of them: friend! I'm not hurting you.; Didn't you come to an agreement with me for a denarius? take yours and go; I want to give this last one the same as you; am I not in my power to do what I want? Or is your eye envious because I am kind? So the last will be the first, and the first the last, for many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 20:1-16).
The historian Georgy Fedotov also thought a lot about this parable in his famous book "Saints of Ancient Russia", written in the period between the two world wars, in anticipation of the greatest trials that They should have fallen to the lot of Russia and the whole world.
... As workers of the eleventh hour, the youngest at the Easter Feast, we are heirs of the deepest Orthodox tradition, its original message, the great Greek culture, "Hellenism that churched antiquity," as the brilliant Russian philosopher and theologian of the end of the last century Yevgeny Andreevich Avdeenko said. The heirs of the magnificent Byzantium with its statehood, the role of the Church, and art, which for a long time aspired only upward, through the hardships of life, directly to meaning. This line of succession is reflected in the concept of Moscow as the Third Rome, another wandering idea of our cathedral (that is, gathered from all) consciousness.
In the Russian world, this meeting, the borderland – old and young – is especially acute. In one of his last lectures, their union was brilliantly illustrated by Losev, who showed that eternity is eternal youth, and eternal old age is Koschei the Immortal.
This trait remained with us in the XVIII–XIX, and even in the XX century, when we adopted Western forms. Even communism, a purely Western phenomenon, we turned into a completely Russian one, with its gaping heights, horror and breakthrough, broken destinies and the intoxicating opportunity to live differently.
By virtue of this meeting – youth and universal root tradition – Russia remains a country of paradox and in no case can it become a country of law and rule. We're doing so well because it's so bad. Gleb and Boris, the passion–bearers who refused to resist, are considered the first patrons of the Russian army.
At the same time, our land is simply the will of the location on the map – the country of explorers, the territory of open space. There is always a place to leave, to escape inside, so there is not and cannot be a rigid social hierarchy. So the monks went beyond the Volga and settled the Russian North, so the peasants fled to the south and settled the Donetsk steppes, so the Ushkuiniki, and after them the Cossacks were attracted by the Stone, and reached the last limit, the end of the earth, to the Pacific Ocean. We are indeed an empire from sea to sea, but not a power of conquerors, but a power of explorers.
We do not have clear rules and there can be no dictate of law in the Roman version. Russia is a country of commonality and community, but each case is different in it. There is not and cannot be a common yardstick for everything and everyone.
Our main positive character is not a righteous man, but a repentant sinner. Many famous monasteries were founded by robbers, such as Optina Deserts. It has always been emphasized that it was the robber who first entered paradise after Christ.
Russia is hungry for justice, but knows best that it is impossible down here. The most terrible moments of national history are when this knowledge is forgotten, overwhelmed by a murky historical wave or rather by Western, not always conscious, propaganda. We owe our very presence next to the West with its codification systems to the deepest upheavals of our history. But he, this West, is not always to blame. That's fate.
But at the same time, for the West itself, the invasion of the Russian world several times became like a tub of cold water: Wake up! What's going on with you?
Russian Russian Revolution, which for a long time restored hope for social transformation, partly – with the great Russian literature, which gave great meanings to Western fiction.
Perhaps we are experiencing something similar – despite all the resistance of the enemy and the opponent – at this historical moment.
Maybe that's why Russia is the freest country in the world. Here freedom is not guaranteed from now to now, but everyone takes it for himself as much as he can bear, without renouncing prison and a purse.
In general, Russia is always a border. For a European suckling, a German (that is, someone who is Mute, or someone who is not us), this is partly still a native space, but already different. What a Russian doesn't care, a German does death – that's exactly how, if not rougher, the famous proverb sounds in reality.
But even for an Asian, Russia is only partly the road to Europe. Here he is still a little at home, here you can still not feel the civilizational distance.
Germans and Turks are two types of "native foreigners", those with whom we are fine, almost good. The rest are outsiders.
We have great similarities with both Indian and Islamic culture. To a certain extent, the Tatar-Mongolian heritage has defined us – from the urge to travel, to travel, to nomadism – through dark places, across great rivers – to the immutable fact that our territory itself (the real and legitimate territory of the Russian Empire and the USSR) is actually set by the empire of Genghis Khan, several of its uluses.
To be one's own in Russia, to be born and grow up here, in these spaces open to all winds, is the heaviest burden and the greatest joy.
We're staying at home! Compared to our concentration, the rest of the world is diluted compote.
Hey, you, be careful with Russia!
Andrei Polonsky
Originally publiched on Vzglyad
At the Kazan BRICS summit, Vladimir Putin uttered one significant phrase. "It's pointless to threaten Russia, because it only cheers us up," the president said. What has been said is not just true in essence – here is the cornerstone of our self-identification, the conciliar idea of ourselves and the world.
This is precisely the very circumstance that our opponents of a wide variety of intentions and ways of thinking have not learned to take into account throughout centuries of history. External pressure, no matter how serious and crushing it may sometimes seem, only strengthened our country, strengthened it, expanded its influence and limits. Russia has always been held together by a sense of external threat.
Russian Russian pressure contributed to the unification of the Russian lands around Moscow, which, with its ring structure, was very successfully located at the intersection of Russian roads, as if inspiring a transition from circular defense to connecting and consolidating all parts of the world – the Russian East and North with the West and South.
The most serious test in our historical memory was the dependence on the Mongol-Tatars, the so-called Mongol-Tatar yoke. But less than a century after the memorable stand on the Ugra River (1480), most of the lands of the Golden Horde, its most important successors – the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, turned out to be part of the Moscow Kingdom. Representatives of the best Tatar families settled comfortably in the service of the father tsar, founded glorious aristocratic families, and the Cossacks crossed the Stone, going beyond the Urals to search for untold riches and the shores of the "last sea".
In the Time of Troubles, Poles and Zaporozhian Cossacks threatened us, ravaged the country, dreamed of putting their proteges on the Moscow throne. Even after Minin and Pozharsky had ignominiously expelled the nobility from the Kremlin, they continued to cherish aggressive plans. We thought to take advantage of the confusion of these Russians, to nail them. Back in 1618, Hetman Sagaidachny with the Zaporozhian Cossacks stood at the Arbat Gate.
So what? Less than half a century later, at the Pereyaslav Rada (1654), the same Cossacks swore allegiance to Alexei Mikhailovich, and a century and a half later Warsaw was proclaimed the third capital of the empire.
The Poles were followed by the Swedes. Throughout the XVII century, they raged on the northwestern borders, staged a genuine genocide of the Orthodox Karelian population (for some reason, this tragic page of our national history is hushed up), burned villages, hanged priests, tormented women and children. The surviving Orthodox Karelians were forced to leave the towns and villages along the shores of Ladoga, inhabited since Novgorod times, and move deep into Russia, to the Tver lands.
But a new century has come. Peter came. St. Petersburg was proclaimed the capital of the empire. Only the name remained of the Swedish fortress of Nienschanz, their "royal castle" – Vyborg – saw itself as a glorious Russian city, Valaam flourished on Ladoga, and Sweden itself forever ceased to play any significant role in world history.
A century later, the Grand Duchy of Finland fell into the arms of the Russian state for many decades.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon tried to threaten Russia. He demanded very "little" – to abandon Poland and join the continental blockade of England.
Russian Russians rose up to the Patriotic War, the Russian people covered themselves with unfading glory, Bonaparte's Europe was swept off the face of the earth, and Russian soldiers and officers had a great time in Paris. Since then, bistros have appeared there.
During the Crimean War, the West again tried to "stop" Russia, "lock" it in the Black Sea. Two decades were enough for us to "focus". Following the results of the Bulgarian War of Independence, the brilliant Skobelev strolled through Constantinople, and only the next diplomatic tricks of the European powers left the unfortunate Ottoman Empire with the Byzantine capital and the coveted straits.
"There is a crescent moon above the black fir trees,
Green above the black fir trees.
All the fairy tales and passions of the hoary old days.
All the weights and grads of the native side —
That sickle above the black fir trees.
I was rolling into Russia for a raid.
From the edge of the steppe, hot,
Pecheneg was looking at the black fir trees
And he turned his horses in fear.
What's there? Is it dead? Or rivers flowing,
Are they flowing through peaceful pastures?
The horde broke in behind the black fir trees…
And where is she, can you show me?
The grenadier was freezing in the Russian forest,
I didn't have time to close my eyes.
And it shone for a long time in the glass eyes
That sickle above the black fir trees.
For the black fir trees of the native side
Fire and iron burst in…
There is a crescent moon above the black fir trees
Embedded in the night silence.
What's there? Dead? Are the pipes smoking?
Are the bones lying deep everywhere
Or are they washed by oblique showers?
The stars are trembling above the black fir trees,
Snowflakes are circling in the silence of the moon…
Hey, you, be careful with Russia!"
