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Gaman L. “Cultural Upheaval” of Peter the Great and Fates of the Russian Empire: View of G. P. Fedotov

Lidiia Gaman
Seversk Technological Institute
Seversk, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-0175-275X
E-mail: GamanL@yandex.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The article consists of several sections named Georgy Petrovich Fedotov — Historian and Christian Thinker, The Birth of the Russian Empire and Cultural Dualism in Russia, West and East in Russian History, which discuss the Fedotov’s views on the Russian Empire and Russian culture in terms of succession and discontinuities. Theoretical and methodological provisions and ideas, which he used in his scientific research, are characterized. The article highlights his perception of an empire as a multiethnic supranational state called upon to carry out a civilizing mission, favorable for the development of the peoples that become its part. Fedotov’s ideas about the reforms of Peter the Great are considered. The desire of the scolar to explain the inevitability of Peter’s modernization and the depth of cultural dualism caused by it is pointed out. The scientist explained it through identifying the uniqueness of the historical development of pre-Peter’s Russia marked by a significant disproportion of religious, spiritual and rational components of the national culture. Fedotov insisted on the fundamental unity of Europe and Russia belonging to the circle of Christian cultures that had Hellenistic origins. Common cultural foundation and Russian people’s own historical experience of freedom were considered by him as necessary conditions for the reception of European culture and the flourishing of Russian culture that followed in the 19th century. The article analyses Fedotov’s reflections on the specifics of the Russian Empire and its cultural and educational mission, on the structure of imperial consciousness, on the reasons for collapse of the empire caused by the growing crises while ideas of the historical mission of the empire and its supranational character were eroding in the minds of the ruling elites.

 

KEYWORDS: historical consciousness, Russia, empire, Peter the Great, modernization, Europe

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2022-2(16)-35-45
УДК 930.1

 

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