On some peculiarities of civilization types (on the issue “Russia and the West”)

Abstract

We consider the centuries-old problem of Russian socio-political thought about its civilizational relationship with the West due to the new aggravation in recent years. The attention is focused on the main reasons for the differences between us, related to the difference of objective factors that form civilizational types, such as geography, climate, religion, mentality and others, which give advantages to one, create an erroneous idea of their place and role in the world and the right to dictate to other peoples their rules and conditions, which inevitably leads the world to conflicts on the basis of the absolutization of the Western vision of the world. The Russian philosophers’ statements in the 19-20 centuries (N.Y. Danilevskiy, Eurasianists, and others) on the role and place of Russia in the world and its priorities became prophetic. We suggest that the fundamental properties and principles of non-Western civilizational types are more acceptable for international relations in terms of their humanity and justice.