What is Russian civilization?

Hello ATS!

Today's thread will be highly philosophical. Although I am a poor philosopher, I will, to the best of my intelligence and knowledge, try to explain to you from a certain philosophical point of view the basic concepts of the Russian nation, worldview, faith and culture. This will be short.

I will allow myself to offer you, dear members of the ATS, my scientific definition of the three most important philosophical quantities, without which it is pointless to discuss Russian civilization as such.

From the point of view of the historiosophical component of the Russian cultural code, the following definitions of these concepts can be proposed:

- Russianness, in contrast to Russian-speakingness, is a fundamental property of the Russian soul and Russian culture, which has a special heartfelt and moral ability of reverent and respectful responsiveness to national values ​​and paternal shrines while simultaneously being open and receptive to the “all-human” and “universal.” This is the internal basis of the Russian world.

- The Russian world, based on the spiritual super-ethnicity of Russianness, as well as on the historiosophical essence of the Russian idea, can be defined as a spiritual bastion of traditional values ​​(Katekhon), keeping the world from anthropological degradation and physical destruction. Traditional values ​​are the semantic guidelines and imperatives of human activity that realize his spiritual essence, his responsibility to God, the Motherland and future generations.

- Russian culture is a culture of conscience and justice, which has a universal character, and feels responsible for its soteriological calling in the world. We come to this conclusion if we take as a basis our definitions of two key concepts - “Russian world” and “Russianness”.


Given the apophatic nature of the Russian question, I tried to formulate these concepts as sensually and closely as possible.

By the way, to confirm my thoughts, a very voluminous interview with Leonid Reshetnikov, a legend of the SVR, former head of the analytical department of the Foreign Intelligence Service, was recently published on the Internet resource Ukraina.ru. Now - in the rank of veteran and military pensioner. But in this service there are definitely no exes. Still, even without access to top-secret documents and messages from our agents, he analyzes what is happening in the world, among our opponents and in our country, in Russia and Ukraine.

I want to give you just a small fragment from this interview. Those who wish and are interested can follow the link and read it in its entirety through Google Translator. So.

Continued below...

“The global West, with rare exceptions, shows a strong rejection of our policies and modern Russia in general. As is known, they aim, using the situation, to weaken, and perhaps tear apart Russia.
- Do you accept the possibility of this last scenario at all?
- As a person who served 36 years in the Foreign Intelligence Service, mostly in the analytical department, I can say that these plans did not arise today, not in the 20s of the 21st century. We wrote to the very top back in the late 90s that clashes between Russia and Ukraine are inevitable. Let me emphasize, military clashes. It was obvious to us what they were doing, how they were working in Ukraine.
- You say “they”. Who is this about?
- Well, first of all, the USA, England, Germany. But most of all the USA, or even so: Great Britain and the USA. They created Anti-Russia from Ukraine very purposefully and actively. Since 1991, the West has had the opportunity, in a certain sense, to work freely on this territory, that is, on part of our southern Russian lands.
I grew up in Kharkov. He left Soviet Ukraine when he began studying in graduate school. In those years I had to see the creeping, quiet Ukrainization of the historically Russian population of the city; Ukraine even then was in the zone of interests of the West, although their possibilities were limited. But even in Soviet times, the United States and its allies contributed to the best of their ability to the process of Ukrainization, which was carried out by the communists from 1918 to 1991, well, maybe with very short breaks.
The main thing here was the deprivation of the Russian identity of the Little Russian population of Ukraine. Through “radyanstvo”, through Sovietness. As our teachers at school and university professors liked to say: “We are all Radyanskie.”
- That is, Soviet?
- Soviet. But they liked the word Radyanskie, from the Rada, more. Also Ukrainization. Well, Soviet, yes. What does “Soviet” mean? This is the deprivation of Russian identity, especially characteristic of Slobozhanshchina, Donbass, Novorossiya, and Kyiv. We, according to the ideas of that time, should have been not Russian, but Soviet. And little by little the introduction of Ukrainian self-awareness at the first stage as a political nation took place.
For example, my fellow students ask me: where are you going for the winter holidays? I answer: to the capital. They ask again: “To Kyiv?” No to Moscow. And they tell me: our capital is Kyiv. It seems like a small thing, but life is made up of it and in the end, golden-domed Moscow becomes a strange city...
Such conversations took place in the 60s and early 70s. In the mid-60s, by the way, they started rolling up their sleeves for Ukrainization. Then Petro Yukhimovich Shelest headed Soviet Ukraine.
I came to foreign intelligence later - at the age of 29 in 1976. And then it was already clear that Ukraine was in the priorities of the West and its intelligence services.
- Well, these are things of a long time ago. And now we all understand that the USA, Great Britain, or Great Britain, as you correctly emphasized, and then the USA, have certain plans to destroy Russia. What is their interest?
- Especially before 1917, we were simply an alternative civilization. The Russian Empire is a thousand-year-old product of the creativity of the Russian people. It was not only and not so much an economic and political alternative, but also a spiritual one. That is, an alternative civilization to the West. We were and continue to be different, not like them.
-What was the difference? You say "other". And what? In culture, in history, in the approach to some family values?
- Basically, in everything. I'll tell you one episode from my life. I was talking once with a foreigner; there was something going on abroad. I won't name the country. The interlocutor is a fairly well-known poet. He knew Russian quite well. He was interested in Russian poetry. We are sitting in the mountains. fire, wine. And he says to me: “Leonid, practically no one in the world understands you Russians?” "In what sense?" “Straightforward. Well, can you explain to me how you can sing songs about grass, about trees, about flowers, about berries? This is not normal.”
We have always, especially in Soviet times, underestimated our differences; on the contrary, we have always emphasized that we are the same as them. Yes, and now we emphasize. Of course, in the West there are many people who are close to us in their ideas about the values ​​of life, but in spirit there is a significant difference. My father reached Berlin during the war, my mother and her little older brother were in the occupation, my relatives died from the Germans. And when in Kharkov in the 60s we had German guests at our house, from the GDR, of course, my parents talked to them as if they were friends, as if nothing had happened. Although only 15 years have passed since the Victory. This is our Russian attitude. They can't do that in the West. There’s always some kind of guard, and more often than not there’s a stone in your bosom.”

Continued below...

"Take the British. Their intelligence services have been involved in Russia for 500 years and have been dealing with Russia for the same number of years. And all these 500 years they have considered and consider us enemies. According to their concepts, we are not like them. In worldview, attitude, in interpersonal relations. Hence their irresistible desire to put us under control, weaken, and best of all, split into twenty quasi-states, not only for geopolitical, economic reasons, but also for spiritual ones.
The Soviet Union was already an attempt to build a different model instead of the Russian Empire. London and his accomplices made great efforts to create this model. Not the Russian Orthodox civilization, but another - Soviet, left-wing globalist. The British and Americans actively participated in organizing the unrest on our land. It seems that Russian civilization was destroyed and their project was solidified. Ah, no. Our man, despite all the trials, repressions, wars, still basically remains different, what was laid down a thousand years ago, does not disappear anywhere. The time comes and it still manifests itself.
Here's an example. In 1999, when I was the head of the SVR department for contacts with foreign intelligence services (Evgeniy Maksimovich Primakov created such a unit when he was director of intelligence), the director of Mi-6, Sir David Spedding, came on an official visit with his deputy assistant Scarlet, who later became the head UK intelligence community. Spedding. asked to expand the cultural program of the visit and include a visit to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
This is an unusual request for such contacts, and I decided to accompany the Englishman. After the tour of the Lavra, I say: “Sir Spedding, it’s time to go back. Lunch and Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theater. Let’s go.”
He responded: “We would like to take another walk, just walk around by ourselves, for half an hour.” They began to walk around and peer into the faces of people, especially those with beards and robes. I began to fear that a scandal might happen, the British behaved too impudently. I say again: “That’s it, we have to go. We’re late.” Spedding: “Okay. We will go, but please answer the question. You are such a young general (I looked young, but I was about 50 years old), your assistant is a modern man, when you enter a church - cross yourself, when you leave - cross yourself. Why? In general “What are people doing here? Such a huge number on a weekday? We clearly told you where to go, we explained everything to you. And should Russia go back to the old ways?” I quote, I remember this for the rest of my life. Spedding's black, bottomless eyes are burning, he's all excited, seething. I see his partner Scarlett, such a typical red-haired Englishman, is uncomfortable with his boss. It is useless to explain or argue in this situation.
Here I see my good friend, writer Vladimir Nikolaevich Krupin, coming. I bring him to the guest: “Sir Spedding, meet the Russian writer Vladimir Nikolaevich Krupin.” To which the chief of one of the most powerful intelligence services in the world says: “Oh, Krupin, from a group of villagers, pochvenniks, a friend of Rasputin, Astafiev.” Here I myself froze. Wow, I think about how I was preparing for the trip. This means they sensed signs of a possible turn of the Russians again to their civilizational path. To the one that they so spread rot and seemed to have wiped off the face of the earth.
Everything that is happening now is a purely civilizational confrontation. The West understands that we are leaving from under them again. And after Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin gave a speech in Munich in 2007, where he directly outlined many things, they went completely wild.
Remember, in the 90s, that was the only thing they didn’t write or say here. "We lost the Cold War." "We are weak, no one respects us. No one loves us." An atmosphere of self-deprecation. And in the documents that our intelligence officers obtained in the West, the opposite was stated: “Russia was not finished off. Russia poses a potential threat. We must finish off, finish off, finish off. This is not enough that we have done.”
Therefore, what happened to Ukraine was inevitable. It's just inevitable. You must understand that a special operation is an attempt by our president to launch a preemptive strike, to stop the enemy. If not for this, they would have cleared Donbass and within a year they would have accepted Ukraine into NATO. That's all. They put a cocked pistol to our head. The entire security of the country in this situation would go to hell.
Leading Western countries have already, it seems to me, passed the point of no return in their civilizational degradation. They are creating this new, conditionally new civilization of “absolute freedom” for fools. She is anti-Christian, of course. And in this sense, our traditional Christian civilization is hostile to them. Apparently, if we are talking about London, new and different projects are already being created there."

What projects were previously and are currently being prepared in the West can be read in the interview at the link.

Thank you.

originally posted by: RussianTroll
- The Russian world, based on the spiritual super-ethnicity of Russianness,...

"super-ethnicity of Russianness .... WOW that's arrogant!

a reply to: RussianTroll

the British. Their intelligence services have been involved in Russia for 500 years.

British intelligence services date back from 1882.

With your continual " British Bashing " threads, you are making yourself look a fool. You must really have a deep envy of The British. You are obsessed.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Isn't ultra-nationalism more of a Nazi/Fascisti thing than the Russian Imperialist and Soviet times?

And didn't the cultural revolution, you know, change a lot of cultural norms (or, at least, try)?

Cultural Revolution in the Soviet Union

It seems to me that there hasn't been a single purely Russian culture in Russia. It has always been changing, and it gave and received from many adjacent ethnicities and their cultures.

But I suppose you can say almost anything, about almost anything, if you just use the right weasel-words. It doesn't even have to make sense. Agitprop.

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: RussianTroll


But I suppose you can say almost anything, about almost anything, if you just use the right weasel-words. It doesn't even have to make sense.

You know the old saying,


"It is the Empty Vessel that makes the most Noise"


Poor chap might be suffering from "Culture Envy"!

a reply to: RussianTroll

Russianness, in contrast to Russian-speakingness, is a fundamental property of the Russian soul and Russian culture, which has a special heartfelt and moral ability of reverent and respectful responsiveness to national values ​​and paternal shrines while simultaneously being open and receptive to the “all-human” and “universal.” This is the internal basis of the Russian world.

I will tell you what the property of the Russian soul is. Predatism. This is the very essence of the Russian world; preying on the weaker nations, unappeased stealing of lands. Most of the Russian leaders were predators. Putin is one too though less dignified. While Catherine the Great could be compared to a lioness, Putin is more like a hyena. Cowardly and murderous, attacking innocent civilians.

Ukraine did nothing to Russia. It was too weak and too poor to threaten anyone. It was attacked because Putin wanted more land and power.

a reply to: twistedpuppy

A typical opinion of renegades who once betrayed both their ethnicity and their faith, and are now trying to be holier than Pope Rome. Usual Polish ambition.

a reply to: RussianTroll
Most of what you've posted here is just a word salad of ultra-nationalism and again lightly veiled obessive hatred of all things British, but some parts seem a little off or incorrect to me, here's a tiny taster...

They created Anti-Russia from Ukraine very purposefully and actively. Since 1991, the West has had the opportunity, in a certain sense, to work freely on this territory,

I think you'll find that the anti-Russia feeling came from the failures and collapse of the USSR in 91, partially also due to the total failure of the war in Afganistan.
The same kind of resentment appears to be growing amongst the Russian forces now with the illegal and evil invasion of Ukraine with many having close ethnic ties to the Ukrainian People. I posted a very pertinent quote from Britannica....

The army, perhaps the single most powerful opponent of Gorbachev’s reform efforts, found itself back-footed by the stalemate in Afghanistan, and it lost whatever leverage it might have had in checking the advance of perestroika. In the Soviet republics, the Afgantsy (veterans of the Afghan conflict) agitated against what they perceived to be Moscow’s war. Many soldiers from the Central Asian republics felt closer ethnic and religious ties to Afghans than they did to Russians, and protests were widespread. In the European republics, the cleavage with Moscow was even more dramatic. Antiwar demonstrations broke out in Ukraine, while opposition forces in the Baltic republics viewed the war in Afghanistan through the lens of the Russian occupation of their own countries.

Here's an example. In 1999, when I was the head of the SVR department for contacts with foreign intelligence services (Evgeniy Maksimovich Primakov created such a unit when he was director of intelligence), the director of Mi-6, Sir David Spedding, came on an official visit

Sir David Spedding retired in 1999.

The British and Americans actively participated in organizing the unrest on our land.

Which all intelligence agencies have a finger in, with Russia being the biggest, which you should know?
I could've gone on but it was difficult and boring to read.

Its funny that your threads remind me of muslim hating US patridiots...

Go figure...

With my take on history, the Vikings owned the sea lanes a very long time ago. They captured the British isles and spread out along the Russia sea front a very long time ago. Since then, the Romans pushed through with the Bible. The Mongolians also had some runes through the place back in their day. Don't know much about Sumeria, but in the neighborhood and part of the mix these days for Russia.

Now Russia has some weird alphabet characters and a strange language. I don't see that reason to kick them out of the Olympics. As for keeping things running smooth on the ISS, lot of language issues there. Something is still running so that is good. Looks like China is doing its own thing, cannot blame them.

Every culture has it nut jobs.

a reply to: RussianTroll

I'm sure that Genghis Khan often sat by a warm fire at night after marauding a country and dreamed of his rightfulness in what he was doing for his kind. His scribe, at his side, capturing every twisted utterance.

originally posted by: CosmicFocus
a reply to: RussianTroll

I'm sure that Genghis Khan often sat by a warm fire at night after marauding a country and dreamed of his rightfulness in what he was doing for his kind. His scribe, at his side, capturing every twisted utterance.

You forgot to note that while sitting by the fire, Genghis Khan was reading the latest "Times".))).)))

a reply to: RussianTroll

You forgot to note that while sitting by the fire, Genghis Khan was reading the latest "Times"Text

There has been more than one over the thousands of years, One got close to the Vatican. Have not heard of some making it to the UK, maybe? Not enough for a colony, but enough to find some lovely ladies?

a reply to: RussianTroll

Your pride in your heritage and your national culture is admirable.
I think national pride is important in any society for cohesiveness.

Russian civilisation is like every other one Rt , it is what they tell us it is , He who holds tne cup writes His -story


Welcome to Mushroomville Rt , mind the poop and bring a torch

a reply to: stonerwilliam

The Tatars had nothing to do with Great Tartary, the founders of which were the ancestors of the Slavs - the Aryans from Hyperborea. The Turkic peoples came to this territory much later, after the settlement of the Aryans in the territory of Persia and India. You are captivated by a certain consonance of names.

a reply to: RussianTroll

The main reason for anti Russian sentiment in Ukraine might be Russia murdering millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor, rather than Perfidious Albion?

originally posted by: CarlLaFong
a reply to: RussianTroll

Your pride in your heritage and your national culture is admirable.
I think national pride is important in any society for cohesiveness.

I like national pride. It is respect for the ancestors that got us here. It is a respect for the culture we have. Everywhere is different.

Like a bunch of bacteria in a petri dish, we all have a similar heritage, we are all looking for a better way.