What concepts characterize the difficult situation of the Russian people. National character

Recent events such as the overthrow of the government in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea and its decision to join the Russian Federation, the subsequent military campaign against the civilian population in Eastern Ukraine, Western sanctions against Russia, and Lately and the attack on the ruble - that's it this caused a certain phase shift in Russian society, which in the West is very misunderstood, if understood at all. This misunderstanding puts Europe at a serious disadvantage in terms of its ability to negotiate an end to the crisis.

And if before these events they tended to perceive Russia as “another European country,” now they remembered that Russia is another civilization with other civilizational roots (more likely Byzantine than Roman), which once or twice a century became the object of an organized Western attempt to destroy it, because it was attacked by Sweden, Poland, France, Germany or alliances of these countries. This in a special way influenced the Russian character, which, if misunderstood, could lead the whole of Europe and even the whole world to disaster.

If you think that Byzantium had little impact on Russia cultural influence, then you are mistaken: her influence was actually decisive. It began with the advent of Christianity - first through Crimea (the birthplace of Christianity in Russia), and then through the Russian capital Kiev (the same Kiev, which is today the capital of Ukraine) - and allowed Russia to “skip” an entire millennium of cultural development. This influence also determined the opaque and clumsy bureaucracy of the Russian state apparatus, which, along with many other things, irritates the West, which so loves transparency, especially among others. Russians often like to call Moscow the Third Rome, after the real Rome and Constantinople, and this is not entirely unfounded. But this does not mean that Russian civilization is something derivative. Yes, she managed to absorb the entire classical heritage, which was looked at primarily through an “eastern prism,” but the vast northern expanses turned this heritage into something radically different.

This topic is generally very complex, so I will focus on four factors that I consider fundamental to understanding the transformations we are witnessing today.

1. Reaction to attack

Western states were born under conditions of limited resources and unrelenting population pressure, which largely determines how these states react when targeted. For quite a long time, when the central government was weak, conflicts were resolved by bloody means, and even the most insignificant prick from a former friend immediately turned him into a rival with whom they fought with swords. The reason was that in these conditions, protecting the territory was the key to survival.

On the contrary, Russia extends over an almost endless territory over which resources are dispersed. In addition, Russia skillfully took advantage of the bounty of the trade route that led from the Varangians to the Greeks, and was so active that Arab geographers were confident in the existence of a strait that connected the Black and Baltic seas. In these conditions, it was important to avoid conflicts, and people who grabbed weapons at every side glance would have had a hard time living in such an environment.

Therefore, a very different conflict resolution strategy was formed, which has survived to this day. If you offend or harm a Russian in any way, it is unlikely that a fight will break out (although this is exactly what happens during demonstrative confrontations in public or during the expected settling of scores through violence). More often than not, the Russian will simply send you to hell and want nothing to do with you. If the situation is complicated by physical proximity, then the Russian will think about moving - in any direction, but most importantly, away from you. In ordinary conversation, all this is formulated with the one-syllable statement “Pshel,” a form of the verb “to send.” With an almost endless amount of free land on which to settle, this strategy works great. Russians live sedentary lives, but when they need to move, they behave like nomads, among whom the main way to resolve conflicts is voluntary movement.

This reaction to insult is something of a permanent aspect of Russian culture, and therefore the West, which does not understand this, can hardly achieve the results it desires. For people from the West, an offense can be redeemed with an apology, something like “I am sorry!” But for a Russian, to a certain extent, this is nothing, especially in the case when the apology was made by the one who was sent to hell. A verbal apology that is not accompanied by anything tangible is one of the rules good manners, which for Russians is a kind of luxury. Just a few decades ago, the usual apology sounded like “I’m sorry.” Today Russia is much more polite, but basic cultural patterns saved.

And while a purely verbal apology is priceless, tangible restitution is not. “Getting things right” could mean parting with a rare possession, proposing a new and significant commitment, or announcing a fundamental change in direction. The main thing is to do everything, and not only in words, because at a certain stage words can only aggravate the situation, and the call to “go to hell” can be supplemented by the less pleasant phrase “let me show you the way there.”

2. Tactics against invaders

Russia has a long history of invasions from all sides, but primarily from the West, thanks to which Russian culture I came to a certain type of thinking that is difficult to understand from the outside. First of all, we must realize that when the Russians repel invasions (and the fact that the CIA, along with the US State Department, is ruling Ukraine through Ukrainian Nazis is considered an invasion), they are not fighting for territory, at least not directly. They are rather fighting for Russia as a concept. And the concept is that Russia has been attacked many times, but no one has ever conquered it. In the Russian consciousness, conquering Russia means killing almost all Russians, and as they like to say, “You can’t kill us all.” The population can be restored over time (22 million were killed at the end of World War II), but once the concept is lost, Russia will be lost forever. To people in the West, the words of Russians about Russia as “a land of princes, poets and saints” may seem nonsense, but this is precisely the line of thought we are talking about. Russia has no history, it itself is history.

And since the Russians are fighting over a concept rather than a specific piece of Russian territory, they are always willing to retreat first. When Napoleon invaded Russia, he saw the land scorched by the retreating Russians. Finally he reached Moscow, but it also died in the flames. He stopped there for a while, but in the end he realized that he could not do more (did he really have to go to Siberia?), so he finally left his retreating, hungry and frozen army, leaving it to the mercy of fate. As he retreated, another aspect of the Russian cultural heritage: every peasant in every village burned during the Russian retreat participated in the Russian resistance, which created many problems for the French army.

The German invasion during World War II also moved very quickly at first: a large territory was occupied, and the Russians continued to retreat, evacuating the population, entire factories and other institutions to Siberia, families moved inland. But then the German march stopped, turned around and eventually turned into a complete defeat. The standard model was repeated when the Russian army broke the will of the invaders, and most of the local residents who found themselves under occupation refused to cooperate, self-organized into partisan detachments and inflicted the maximum possible damage on the retreating aggressors.

Another Russian method in the fight against an invader is to rely on the Russian climate, which will do its job. In the countryside, people usually get rid of all unnecessary living creatures in the house by simply stopping heating: in a few days at minus 40, all the cockroaches, fleas, lice, nits, as well as mice and rats will die out. This also works with occupiers. Russia is the northernmost country in the world. And although Canada is further north, most of its population lives along the southern border, and no Big City is not located beyond the Arctic Circle. And in Russia there are two such cities at once. Life in Russia in some respects resembles life in space or on the high seas: you cannot live without mutual assistance. The Russian winter simply will not allow us to survive without cooperation with local residents, so to destroy the aggressor it is enough to simply refuse cooperation. And if you are sure that the occupier can force cooperation by shooting several locals in order to scare the rest, see point 1.

3. Tactics in relations with foreign powers

Russia owns almost the entire northern part of the Eurasian continent, which is almost a sixth of the land. On the scale of planet Earth, this is enough. This is not some kind of exception or historical accident: throughout their history, Russians have sought to ensure their collective security by developing as much territory as possible. If you're wondering what prompted them to do this, go back to Tactics Against Invaders.

And if you think that foreign powers have repeatedly tried to attack and conquer Russia in order to gain access to vast natural resources, then you are mistaken: access has always been there - all you have to do is ask. Typically, Russians do not refuse to sell their natural resources - even to potential enemies. But the enemies, as a rule, wanted to “suck in” to Russian sources for free. For them, the existence of Russia is a nuisance, which they tried to get rid of through violence.

But they only achieved that after their failure the price for themselves increased. This is a simple principle: foreigners want Russian resources, and to protect them, Russia needs a strong, centralized state with a large and powerful army, so foreigners must pay and thereby support Russian state and the army. As a result, most of the Russian state's finances come from export tariffs, primarily oil and gas exports, rather than from taxation of the Russian population. After all, the Russian population had paid dearly fighting constant invaders, so why burden them with even more taxes? This means that the Russian state is a customs state, which uses duties and tariffs to obtain funds from enemies who could destroy it, and also uses these funds for its own defense. Due to the fact that there is no replacement for Russian resources, the principle works: the more hostile the world behaves towards Russia, so more money he will pay for Russia's national defense.

But this policy is used in relations with foreign powers, not with foreign peoples. Over the centuries, Russia has “absorbed” a mass of immigrants, say from Germany, during the Thirty Years’ War, and France, after the revolution there. Later people migrated from Vietnam, Korea, China and Central Asia. Last year, Russia accepted more migrants than any other country except the United States. In addition, Russia accepted almost a million people from war-torn Ukraine without much difficulty. Russians are a displaced people more than many others, and Russia is a bigger melting pot than the United States.
4. Thank you, but we have our own

Another interesting cultural trait is that Russians always see the need to be the best in everything - from ballet and figure skating, hockey and football to space flights and microchip production. You may think that “Champagne” is a protected French brand, but recently on New Year’s I was convinced that “Soviet Champagne” is still selling out at the speed of light, and not only in Russia, but also in Russian stores in the USA, because, understand, French things may be good, but they don’t taste Russian enough. For almost everything you can think of, there is a Russian version, which the Russians consider the best, and sometimes they directly say that it is their invention (for example, Popov, not Marconi, invented the radio). Of course, there are exceptions (say, tropical fruits), which are acceptable provided that they are from a “brotherly people,” which, for example, is Cuba. This model already worked in Soviet times, and it seems to have survived to a certain extent to this day.
During the ensuing “stagnation” of the era of Brezhnev, Andropov and Gorbachev, when Russian ingenuity truly declined along with everything else, technologically (but not culturally) Russia lost ground in relation to the West. After the breakup Soviet Union the Russians coveted Western imports, which was completely understandable, since Russia itself at that time produced practically nothing. In the 90s, the time came for Western managers to flood Russia with cheap imports, setting themselves long term goal- destroy local industry and Russian production, turn Russia into a simple exporter of raw materials, which will be defenseless against the embargo, and which can easily be forced to lose its sovereignty. It would all end in a military invasion, against which Russia would be defenseless.

This process got quite far before it hit a few snags. First, Russian production and non-hydrocarbon exports have recovered and increased several times over the course of one decade. The growth also affected the export of grain, weapons and high-tech products. Secondly, Russia has found quite a few friendlier and more profitable trading partners in the world, however, this in no way diminishes the importance of its trade with the West, or more precisely with the EU. Thirdly, the Russian defense industry was able to maintain its standards and independence from imports. (The same can hardly be said about defense companies in the West that depend on Russian titanium exports).

And today, a “perfect storm” has broken out for Western managers: the ruble has partially depreciated due to low oil prices, which displaces imports and helps local producers. Sanctions have undermined Russia's faith in the West's reliability as a supplier, and the conflict in Crimea strengthens Russians' self-confidence. Russian government took the opportunity to support companies that can immediately replace imports from the West with other products. The Russian Central Bank was entrusted with financing them credit rate, which makes import substitution even more attractive.

Some compare the current period to the last time the price of oil fell to $10 a barrel, which to a certain extent brought the collapse of the USSR closer. But this analogy is wrong. At that time, the USSR stagnated economically and depended on Western grain supplies, without which it would not have been able to feed the people. The collapse was led by the helpless and controlled Gorbachev - a peacemaker, capitulator and phrase-monger on a global scale, whose wife loved to go shopping in London. Russian people despised him. Today, Russia is once again one of the world's largest grain exporters, led by an exemplary President Putin, who enjoys the support of more than 80% of the population. By comparing the USSR before the collapse with today's Russia, commentators and analysts are only demonstrating their ignorance.

This passage literally writes itself. This is a recipe for disaster, so I’ll write everything down, point by point, as in a recipe.

1. Take the people who respond to attacks by sending you to hell, turning away from you and not wanting anything to do with you - instead of fighting with you. Realize that this is a people whose natural resources are essential to keeping your homes light and warm, so you can produce transport planes, military fighter jets, and much more. Remember that a quarter of the light bulbs in the United States come on from Russian nuclear fuel, and cutting off Europe from Russian gas would mean a real disaster.

2. Introduce economic and financial sanctions against Russia. Watch in horror as your exporters lose profits and the Russian response blocks agricultural exports. Remember, this is a country that has suffered a long chain of attacks and traditionally relies on unfriendly countries to fund Russian defense, directed precisely against these enemies. Or Russia turns to methods such as the already mentioned winter. “No gas for NATO countries” sounds like a great slogan. Hope and pray that Moscow doesn't like him.

3. Organize an attack on their national currency, which will lose part of its value, and do the same with oil prices. Imagine how Russian officials chuckle as they go to the Central Bank when the low ruble exchange rate means filling the state budget despite the low oil price. Watch in horror as your exporters go bankrupt because they can no longer take a place in the Russian market. Remember that Russia has no national debt worth discussing, that it is run with a miniscule budget deficit, and that it has large gold and foreign exchange reserves. Remember your banks, which “lent” hundreds of billions of dollars to Russian companies - those companies to which, by imposing sanctions, you cut off access to your banking system. Hope and pray that Russia doesn't freeze debt payments for west bank, when new sanctions are introduced, because this will blow your banks into the air.

4. Watch in horror as Russia rewrites gas export agreements that now involve everyone except you. And when they start working, will there be enough gas left for you? But it seems that this is no longer Russia’s concern, because you offended it, because the Russians, so and so, sent you to hell (and don’t forget to take Galich there). Now they will trade with countries that are more friendly to them.

5. Watch with horror as Russia actively seeks ways to exit its trade relationship with you, seeks suppliers in other parts of the world, and sets up production to replace imports.

And then a surprise appears, by the way, underestimated by everyone, euphemistically speaking. Russia recently proposed a deal to the EU. If the EU refuses to sign the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US, it could join the Customs Union with Russia. Why freeze yourself when Washington can freeze? This would be reparation for the EU's previous aggressive behavior, which Russia would accept. And this is an extremely generous offer. And if the EU accepts it, it will prove a lot: that the EU does not pose any military or economic threat to Russia, that European countries are very nice and small, produce delicious cheeses and sausages, that the current crop of politicians are worthless, dependent on Washington, and that it is necessary to create a big pressure to understand where the interests of their peoples actually lie... So will the EU accept such a proposal or will it accept Galic as a new member and “freeze”?

Scientists have been arguing for decades about what a Russian person looks like. They study genetic types, physical features, papillary patterns, and even hematological features of blood groups. Some conclude that the ancestors of Russians are Slavs, others argue that Finns are closest to Russians in genotype and phenotype. So where is the truth and what anthropological portrait does the Russian person have?

The first descriptions of the appearance of Russian people

Since ancient times people have been interested in the origins human race, attempts to explore this area have been made repeatedly. Ancient records of travelers and scientists who noted their observations in detail have been preserved. There are also records in the archives about Russian people, their external and behavioral characteristics. The statements of foreigners are especially interesting. In 992, Ibn Fadlan, a traveler from Arab countries, described the perfect body and attractive appearance of the Russians. In his opinion, Russians “... are blond, red in face and white in body.”

Characteristics of Russians

In the 19th century, the famous scientist Anatoly Bogdanov created a theory about characteristic features ah Russian man. He said that everyone quite clearly imagines the appearance of a Russian. In support of his words, the scientist cited stable verbal expressions from people’s everyday life - “pure Russian beauty”, “the spitting image of a hare”, “a typical Russian face”.
The master of Russian anthropology, Vasily Deryabin, proved that in their characteristics Russians are typical Europeans. In terms of pigmentation, they are average Europeans - Russians are more likely to have light eyes and hair.

Generalized anthropological portrait of a Russian person

Characteristic types of appearance of Russian people

Despite a number of morphological characteristics characteristic of Russian people, scientists have proposed a narrower classification and identified several groups among Russians, each of which has distinctive external features.
The first of them is the Nordids. This type belongs to the Caucasian type, common in Northern Europe, in northwestern Russia, it includes part of the Estonians and Latvians. The appearance of Nordids is characterized by blue or green eyes, an oblong skull shape, and pink skin.

N. A. Berdyaev and N. O. Lossky.
Both thinkers, being of a religious orientation, put in the first place the religiosity of the Russian person, which they considered internal to him and from which all the private moral properties of the Russian soul naturally flowed, first of all the permanent - constant and continuous - search for absolute good.

The outstanding Russian philosopher Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874–1948) noted its inconsistency (duality, antinomy) and pronounced apoliticality, non-statehood of the Russian people. It is the first of these signs that makes it difficult to understand the characteristics of the Russian soul, and it is precisely in understanding this inconsistency lies the solution to the riddle of the Russian soul.
Berdyaev says unequivocally: “One can approach the solution to the mystery hidden in the soul of Russia by immediately recognizing the antinomic nature of Russia, its terrible inconsistency.” Inconsistency - and this is the main thing - leads to the fact that Russia lives an “inorganic life”, it lacks integrity and unity.
In the same connection, Berdyaev notes: “Imperialism in the Western and bourgeois sense of the word is alien to the Russian people, but he dutifully devoted his energies to the creation of imperialism, in which his heart was not interested. Here lies the secret of Russian history and the Russian soul. No philosophy of history, Slavophile or Western, has yet unraveled why the most stateless people created such a huge and powerful state, why the most anarchic people are so submissive to the bureaucracy, why the free-spirited people seem to not want free life? This secret is connected with the special relationship between the feminine and masculine principles in the Russian folk character. The same antinomy runs through all Russian existence.”

About the second main feature of the Russian character Berdyaev says: “Russia is the most stateless, most anarchic country in the world. And the Russian people are the most apolitical people, who have never been able to organize their land..."
. And at the same time, according to Berdyaev: “Russia is the most state-owned and most bureaucratic country in the world; everything in Russia turns into an instrument of politics. The Russian people created the most powerful state in the world, greatest empire. Since Ivan Kalita, Russia has consistently and persistently gathered itself and has reached dimensions that stun the imagination of all peoples of the world. The forces of the people, who are not without reason thought to be striving for an inner spiritual life, are given over to the colossus of statehood, turning everything into its weapon.” However, in the quoted there is no contradiction in essence, because in the first case we mean the mechanics of management (and in this regard, everything is correct: we never strived for high-quality management of the country, calling on various kinds of foreigners for this work, in the initial period of the formation of the Russian state - the Varangians, in Peter the Great and post-Petrine era - all sorts of “Germans”), and in the second - the real practice of creating a state, which was characterized by successful expansion in different directions of the world, primarily to the east.

The most important character trait of the Russian people is tolerance towards foreigners, which Berdyaev notes in the following words: “Russia is the most non-chauvinistic country in the world. In our country, nationalism always gives the impression of something non-Russian, superficial, some kind of nonsense. The Germans, British, French are chauvinists and nationalists en masse, they full of national self-confidence and complacency.
Russians are almost ashamed of being Russian; alien to them national pride and often even - alas! - national dignity is alien.
The Russian people are not at all characterized by aggressive nationalism or inclinations for forced Russification.
The Russian does not put forward, does not show off, does not despise others.
In the Russian element there truly is some kind of national unselfishness, sacrifice, unknown to Western peoples.
The Russian intelligentsia has always treated nationalism with disgust and abhorred it as evil... What is national in Russia is precisely its supernationalism, its freedom from nationalism; In this, Russia is unique and unlike any other country in the world. Russia is called upon to be a liberator of peoples. This mission is embedded in its special spirit."

The Russian people do not lend themselves well to political organization.
This happens due to the fact that “Russia is a country of boundless freedom of spirit, a country of wandering and the search for God’s truth. Russia is the least bourgeois country in the world; she does not have that strong philistinism that so repels and disgusts Russians in the West.”
And at the same time: “It is almost impossible to move Russia, it has become so heavy, so inert, so lazy, so immersed in matter, so resignedly comes to terms with his life.
All our classes, our soil layers: the nobility, merchants, peasants, clergy, bureaucrats - all do not want and do not like ascension; everyone prefers to stay in the lowlands, on the plain, to be “like everyone else”
. This kind of property of the Russian person leads to the fact that in our country there are still no well-developed political institutions that would create an effectively functioning civil society. However, individual elements of civil society, although with great difficulty, very slowly, began to emerge in Russia in the last years of tsarist rule, that is, during the era of constitutional monarchy, but all this was completely ruined by the Bolshevik coup, as a result of which the reins of power in the country took the political elite, while the bulk of the population remained purely indifferent in terms of the manifestation of social initiative (which is reflected in the well-known rule of the Soviet man, namely: “keep your head down”).

Berdyaev notes as a negative feature of the Russian character his excessive self-importance, in connection with which he says that Russia is “a country that considers itself the only one called and rejects all of Europe as rottenness and a fiend of the devil, doomed to death. The flip side of Russian humility is the extraordinary Russian conceit. The most humble is the greatest, the most powerful, the only one called. “Russian” is righteous, good, true, divine. Russia is “holy Rus'”. Russia is sinful, but even in its sin it remains a holy country - a country of saints living by the ideals of holiness... Russia considers itself not only the most Christian, but also the only Christian country in the world... Church nationalism is a characteristic Russian phenomenon. Our Old Believers are thoroughly saturated with it.” However, this opinion of an outstanding philosopher should be approached with caution, keeping in mind that in this case there is a fine line between truly excessive self-conceit, which is not good, and a possible underestimation of one’s national role in the formation of a world system of moral relations, which is fully consistent with the spiritual potency of the Orthodox Russian people.

Berdyaev says that “Russia - fantastic country spiritual intoxication, the country of the Khlysty, self-immolators, Doukhobors, the country of Kondraty Selivanov (the founder of the scopal sect that existed in the second half of the 18th century in the Oryol province - V.N.) and Grigory Rasputin, the country of impostors and Pugachevism. The Russian soul does not sit still, it is not a bourgeois soul, not a local soul. In Russia, in the soul of the people, there is some kind of endless search, a search for the invisible city of Kitezh, an invisible home. Distances open before the Russian soul, and there is no delineated horizon before its spiritual eyes. The Russian soul burns in a fiery search for truth, absolute, divine truth and salvation for the whole world and general resurrection to a new life. She always grieves over the grief and suffering of the people and the whole world, and her torment knows no satisfaction. This soul is absorbed in solving the final, damned questions about the meaning of life. There is rebellion, rebellion in the Russian soul, insatiability and dissatisfaction with anything temporary, relative and conditional. It must go further and further, to the end, to the limit, to the exit from this “world”, from this land, from everything local, bourgeois, attached... The heroically minded intelligentsia went to their death in the name of materialistic ideas. This strange contradiction will be understood if we see that under a materialistic guise she strived for the absolute. The Slavic revolt is a fiery, fiery element, unknown to other races” [ibid., pp. 9–10]. The properties of the Russian character noted by the brilliant philosopher, it seems, could not help but lead to the idea of ​​Russian cosmism, and it was also quite natural that the Russians, born in free-thinking France, took up the same “crazy” - still difficult to understand - idea of ​​​​solidarism.

Nikolai Onufrievich Lossky (1870–1965) developed the most deeply considered topic in his book “The Character of the Russian People,” first published in Frankfurt am Main by the NTS Publishing House “Posev” in 1957, republished in Moscow by the Publishing House “Klyuch” in 1990 g., and then as an article with the same title - in the journal “Problems of Philosophy” in 1996 (No. 4), from where it is quoted. This philosopher emphasizes that the Russian idea is a Christian idea, and therefore the character of a Russian person as a Christian is formed under the influence of Orthodox morality, focused on the search and bringing of goodness, love and truth, “in the foreground in it is love for the suffering, pity, attention to the individual personality..." [see. named source, p. 41]. In this regard, N. O. Lossky notes the exceptional role of religious ascetics - monastic “elders”, to whom people went for instruction, consolation and blessing, in search of answers to many life questions, both the simplest - material, everyday and family, and the sublime - moral and spiritual, including about the meaning of one’s existence, about the Kingdom of Heaven, about the meaning of church holidays and other wisdom.

Among the particularly valuable properties of a Russian person, the philosopher notes a sensitive perception of other people's states of mind, from which flows lively communication between even unfamiliar people. On this occasion, he writes: “The Russian people have highly developed individual personal and family communication. In Russia there is no excessive replacement of individual relationships with social ones, there is no personal and family isolationism. Therefore, even a foreigner, having arrived in Russia, feels: “I am not alone here” (of course, I am talking about normal Russia, and not about life under the Bolshevik regime). Perhaps these properties are the main source of recognition of the charm of the Russian people, so often expressed by foreigners, well knowledgeable about Russia"[ibid., p. 42].

The phenomenon of openness of the Russian soul, which, in turn, determines the sincerity of the Russian person, is closely related to this property. On this occasion, Lossky writes: ““Life according to the heart” creates openness in the soul of a Russian person and ease of communication with people, simplicity of communication, without conventions, without external instilled politeness, but with those virtues of politeness that arise from sensitive natural delicacy” [ibid. ]. As can be seen from what was quoted, the Russian person is completely alien to everyday - so to speak, everyday - hypocrisy, the presence of a mask of politeness (like those same Americans who always have “mouth to ear”, but at the same time often have “a stone in their bosom”, or , if not stone, then elementary coldness, complete indifference). For a Russian person, everything is written “on his face.” This is where the gloominess of Soviet - and post-Soviet - people, noted by almost everyone - both domestic observers and foreigners - comes from: why does the majority Soviet people, and today the majority of Russians were and are to rejoice?

Among the primary basic properties of the Russian people, according to Lossky, is powerful willpower, the derivative of which is passion as a combination of strong feelings and tension of will, aimed at a loved or hated value. Naturally, the higher the value, the stronger feelings and energetic activity it evokes in people with a strong will. This explains the passion of the Russian people, manifested in political life, and even greater passion in religious life. Maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance are the products of this passion. As an example confirming the presence of the latter property among Russian people, the professor recalls the fact of the self-immolation of many thousands of Old Believers during the reformations of Patriarch Nikon, the most famous among whom was Archpriest Avvakum.

The same was, according to Lossky, the Russian revolutionary movement, which also abounds in examples of political passion and powerful willpower. Starting with the People's Will, who were obsessed with their idea of ​​​​the need to establish social justice in society - the creation of the Kingdom of God on earth, but without God (!?), and ending with the Bolshevik-Leninists. Regarding the second, he writes: “The unbending will and extreme fanaticism of Lenin, together with the Bolsheviks led by him, who created totalitarian state in such an excessive form that has never been, and God willing, will not be again on earth” [ibid.].

At the same time, Lossky also notes that in the Russian people there is also a property that is opposite to strong will and determination, namely the familiar “Oblomovism”, that laziness and passivity that is excellently depicted by Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov”. On this issue, he agrees with the opinion of N. Dobrolyubov, who explains the nature of “Oblomovism” this way: “...Russian people are characterized by a desire for an absolutely perfect kingdom of being and at the same time excessive sensitivity to any shortcomings of their own and others’ activities. From here arises a cooling towards the work begun and an aversion to continuing it; the idea and general outline of it are often very valuable, but its incompleteness and therefore inevitable imperfections repel the Russian person, and he is lazy to continue finishing the little things. Thus, Oblomovism is in many cases the flip side of the high qualities of the Russian person - the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of our reality...” [ibid.].

Among the primary properties of the Russian people, along with religiosity, the search for absolute good and willpower, Lossky considers love for freedom and its highest expression - freedom of spirit. And those who have freedom of spirit are inclined to doubt every truth and put every value to the test, not only in thought, but even in experience. Due to the free search for truth, Russian people find it difficult to come to terms with each other. Therefore, in public life, Russians’ love of freedom is expressed in a tendency towards anarchy, in repulsion from the state. One of the reasons, according to Lossky, why Russia has developed absolute monarchy, sometimes bordering on despotism, lies in the fact that it is difficult to govern a people with anarchic inclinations, because such a people makes excessive demands on the state [ibid.].

All researchers of the issue under consideration note as an indispensable property of the soul of a Russian person - his kindness, in connection with which they say that the Russian soul has feminine nature, according to Berdyaev, forever-womanish. However, Lossky does not agree with this; he talks about the combination of kindness and courage in the Russian character, which seems absolutely true. On this occasion, he writes that “the Russian people, especially their Great Russian branch, the people who created a great state in harsh historical conditions, are extremely courageous; but what is especially remarkable about him is the combination of masculine nature with feminine softness” [ibid.].

This outstanding philosopher connects with the property of kindness the presence in the character of a Russian person of another remarkable human quality - the absence of rancor, which occurs in all layers of society. Lossky notes that “often a Russian person, being passionate and prone to maximalism, experiences strong feeling repulsion from another person, however, when meeting him, if specific communication is necessary, his heart softens, and he somehow involuntarily begins to show his spiritual gentleness towards him, even sometimes condemning himself for this if he believes that this person is not deserves to be treated kindly” [ibid.].

In full accordance with the inherent inconsistency of the Russian person, the property of kindness in his character is accompanied by the presence of a negative property - the need to lie in the name of good. Lossky explains this as follows: “The kindness of a Russian person sometimes prompts him to lie due to the reluctance to offend his interlocutor, due to the desire for peace and good relations with people at all costs” [ibid.].

Along with kindness, Russian people have many manifestations of the exact opposite property - cruelty. At the same time, Lossky notes that there are many types of cruelty and some of them can occur, paradoxically, even in the behavior of people who are not at all evil by nature. Lossky explains many of the negative aspects of the behavior of the peasants by their extreme poverty, the many insults and oppressions they experience and lead them to extreme embitterment. He considered the fact that in peasant life, husbands sometimes severely beat their wives, most often while drunk, to be especially outrageous.

From the works of Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev (1877–1954; by the way, a member of the NTS), the thematic character is the report he made in 1923 at one of the philosophical conferences in Rome entitled “Russian National Character,” in which the professor noted that “we [Russians] ] are interesting, but incomprehensible to the West and, perhaps, that is why they are especially interesting because they are incomprehensible; We don’t fully understand ourselves, and, perhaps, even the incomprehensibility and irrationality of actions and decisions constitute a certain trait of our character” [see. B. P. Vysheslavtsev. Russian national character // Questions of philosophy. 1995. No. 6, p. 113]. In the above-mentioned work, the philosopher, noting that the character of a people manifests itself at an unconscious level, in the subconscious of the people who make up this or that nation (especially Russians, in whose souls “the area of ​​the subconscious occupies an exclusive place” [ibid.]), draws attention to the possibility of penetration into it is the subconscious, so to speak, to see what the mass of the people really think about, without keeping silent about the negative and excessively embellishing the positive. This can be done, according to Vysheslavtsev, through an analysis of the content of the folk epic, through fairy tales and epics invented by the people (including those used by them for the purpose of educating the younger generation, which is especially socio-politically important), in which, as in a person’s dream, the innermost thoughts, deeply hidden, inner aspirations and dreams of the people are involuntarily expressed. Moreover, both morally positive and not so positive.

Citing examples from Russian fairy tales, Vysheslavtsev identifies the most characteristic character traits of the Russian people, which appear in the form of their fears and cherished dreams. Thus, according to the philosopher’s observation, the Russian people are afraid of poverty, even more of labor, but most of all of a certain “grief”, which is understood as “not the external fate of the Greeks, resting on ignorance, on delusion”; among the Russians “it is their own will, or rather some kind of lack of will.” But there is another fear in the fairy tales of the Russian people, a fear more sublime than the fear of deprivation, labor and even “grief” - this is the fear of a broken dream, the fear of falling from heaven [ibid.].

Analyzing the composition of the unconscious dreams of the Russian people, presented in national fairy tales, Vysheslavtsev notes the presence in them of the entire gamut of desires, from the most sublime to the lowest, from the most base everyday desires, justified by the notorious “economic materialism,” to ideas about their desired future, based which lie the cherished dreams of Russian idealism [ibid.]. So, the lazy Emelya the fool, who selflessly dreams, sitting on the stove, about a baked bull and milk rivers with jelly banks, is by no means a negative hero of our well-known fairy tales. There are indeed quite a few such real-life characters in Rus'. It was these slacker dreamers who rushed en masse to the Bolshevik call in 1917. It was they, overwhelmed by a cherished dream, inspired by many, by and large, morally and politically vicious fairy tales, dreaming that they would have everything not as a result of hard work, but “at the behest of a pike, according to my desire,” succumbed to to the temptation organized by the Bolsheviks to take everything from others - in their understanding, from the world-eating rich - under the Marxist slogan about the goodness of “expropriation of the expropriators.” In the latter case, as can be easily seen, we have an example of a Russian person inclined to his favorite extreme: awareness of the depravity of the unfair distribution of material wealth in many cases with practical ways to ensure social justice using the easiest method - “take away and divide”, and not by persistent improvement of social relations.

Another example of a negative property, considered by Vysheslavtsev, is very indicative. This example concerns, unfortunately, the most important moral imperative of an Orthodox person - his religiosity, or, more precisely, his attitude towards religious shrines, which one day, in the heat of the unbridled resentment of a Russian person for something or someone, suddenly do not become such (again , the same case of manifestation of psychological extremes in the character of Russians). We are talking about the valiant Ilya Muromets, who, being “mortally” offended by the fact that Prince Vladimir did not invite him to his “invited feast,” began shooting with arrows the domes and “wonderful crosses” on Kyiv churches. As the philosopher notes, “here is the whole picture of the Russian revolution, which the ancient epic saw in a prophetic dream. Ilya Muromets, the personification of peasant Rus', organized, together with the most disgusting mob, with drunkards and slackers, a real destruction of the church and state; suddenly he began to destroy everything that he recognized as sacred and that he defended all his life” [ibid., p. 116]. The following is the conclusion that the entire Russian character is clearly visible in this epic: there was injustice, but the reaction to it was completely unexpected and spontaneous. This is not a Western European revolution, with its acquisition of rights and the struggle for a new system of life; this is spontaneous nihilism, instantly destroying everything that the people’s soul worshiped, and, moreover, realizing its crime. This is not the restoration of violated justice in the world, it is the rejection of a world in which such injustice exists. This prophetic warning, quite clearly expressed in Russian epic epic, the Russian monarchy did not understand, which doomed itself to inevitable collapse.

Also indicative in terms of reflecting one of the character traits of Russian people is Vysheslavtsev’s noted desire to be transported in his fairy tales “across three seas, to another kingdom, to another state.” As the analytical philosopher notes, this is probably “the main and most beautiful dream Russian people." And although in fairy tales this dream is most often quite prosaic: in most cases it is the desire to get your Vasilisa the Wise, who, again, will provide Ivan the Tsarevich with a personally happy and socially problem-free life, and Ivan the Fool - which happens more often in Russian fairy tales - a comfortable and an idle life. However, the fabulous travels “across the three seas” also contain something more sublime, namely the desire for the new, unknown. Among the most thoughtful representatives of the Russian people, this was once expressed in the dream of space, which is not just “beyond three seas,” but much further and more inaccessible, and therefore even more tempting.

Another great Russian philosopher and statesman, Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin (1883–1954), said well about the character of the Russian people: “The Motherland is not the place on earth where I was born, came into the world from my father and mother, or where I was “used to living.” ; but that spiritual place where I was born in spirit and where I come from in my life creativity. And if I consider Russia my homeland, then this means that I love, contemplate and think in Russian, sing and speak in Russian; that I believe in the spiritual powers of the Russian people and accept their historical destiny with my instinct and my will. His spirit is my spirit; his destiny is my destiny; his suffering is my grief; its blossoming is my joy.

This is what a true patriot thinks and feels when speaking about his homeland: “My people! I was born from your depths in flesh and spirit. The same spirit that burned in my ancestors burns within me. The instinct of national self-preservation that led you through the wilds and torments of your history lives in me and guides me...” “The sigh of my people is my sigh; and the groan of my people is my groan. I am strong with his strength and I give this strength to him and for him. I am connected with him into one we. I believe in his spiritual power and in his creative ways. I myself create just like him; I pray and work with him, I contemplate and think with him; I dream of having all his virtues and worry about his weaknesses and imperfections. His national interest is mine, personal. I joyfully join in his glory, and am tormented in the days of his ruin and shame. His friends are my friends. His enemies are my enemies. My life belongs to him. His tongue is my tongue. His earthly territory is my territory, and the army loyal to him is my native army. I did not choose him, for it was he himself who gave birth to me from his bosom. But, being born by him, I chose him and accepted him into last depth my heart. And therefore I am faithful to him; and is faithful to him - in all situations, difficulties and dangers of life. I cannot have this feeling for two peoples at once. A person cannot have two mothers, or profess two different faiths. And if my people are great and diverse and have received streams of many bloods, then each of these bloods can and should find its baptism in his spirit; and each of them is called upon to connect their fate with his fate, and to think and feel in spiritual identity with him..." (I. Ilyin. For national Russia. Manifesto of the Russian movement, paragraph 15 - Love for the Motherland).

With this baggage - a set of classic positive and negative qualities of the character of the soul inherent in Russian people from time immemorial, we met the 20th century. It was the presence of these properties that determined the origin of those events and deeds that accompanied the Russian people and that the Russian people did over the next century. They determined our future destiny right up to the present day, pushing us into a terrible social experiment - the construction of an ugly socialist society, and leading us to the most desperate heights of human thought and action - it was we, the Russians, who were the first earthlings to go into space, realizing our own, primordially Russian, the idea of ​​​​exploiting the Universe (in the second case, we became truly Gagarinists in everything - both in theory and in practice, having passed the way from the abstract dream of Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov-Gagarin, which arose in the middle XIX century, before the actual flight into space of the first earthling - Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, a century after that, on April 12, 1961). In order to go further, it is necessary to consider the factors shaping the character of a Russian person and what Soviet reality did to him.

The character of the Russian people was formed primarily under the influence of time and space. The history and geographical location of our homeland also made their own adjustments. The constant danger from possible raids and wars united people, gave birth to special patriotism, and the desire for strong centralized power. The climatic conditions, not the most favorable, it must be said, forced the people to unite and strengthened their particularly strong character. The vast expanses of our country have given a special scope to the actions and feelings of the Russian people. Although these generalizations are conditional, it is still possible to identify common features and patterns.

Since its inception, Russia has shown itself to be an unusual country, unlike others, which aroused curiosity and added mystery. Russia does not fit the mold, does not fit into any standards, everything in it is not similar to the majority. And this makes its character, the character of its people, very complex and contradictory, difficult for foreigners to understand.

Nowadays, scientists and researchers have begun to find an increasing role for national character in the development of society as a whole. It is a single, holistic system that has a hierarchy of traits and qualities that influence the way of thinking and action of a given nation. It passes on to people from generation to generation, changing it by taking administrative measures is quite difficult, but still possible, although large-scale changes require a large number of time and effort.

There is interest in the Russian national character not only abroad, but we ourselves are trying to understand it, although this is not entirely successful. We cannot understand our actions or explain some historical situations, although we notice some originality and illogicality in our actions and thoughts.

Today in our country there is a turning point, which we are experiencing with difficulty and, in my opinion, not entirely correctly. In the 20th century, there was a loss of many values ​​and a decline in national self-awareness. And in order to get out of this state, the Russian people must, first of all, understand themselves, return to their previous features and instill values, and eradicate shortcomings.

The very concept of national character today is widely used by politicians, scientists, and mass media, writers. Often this concept has very different meanings. Scholars have debated whether national character actually exists. And today the existence of certain characteristics characteristic of only one people is recognized. These features are manifested in the way of life, thoughts, behavior and activities of the people of a given nation. Based on this, we can say that national character is a certain set of physical and spiritual qualities, norms of activity and behavior characteristic of only one nation.

The character of each nation is very complex and contradictory due to the fact that the history of each nation is complex and contradictory. Also important factors are climatic, geographical, social, political and other conditions that influence the formation and development of national character. Researchers believe that all factors and conditions can be divided into two groups: natural-biological and socio-cultural.

The first explains that people belonging to different races will express their character and temperament in different ways. It should be said here that the type of society formed by a particular people will also have a strong influence on its character. Therefore, understanding the national character of a people occurs through understanding the society, conditions and factors in which this people lives.

It is also important that the type of society itself is determined by the value system adopted in it. Thus, social values ​​are the basis of national character. National character is a set of important methods of regulating activity and communication, created in accordance with the social values ​​inherent in a given people. Therefore, in order to understand the Russian national character, it is necessary to highlight the values ​​characteristic of the Russian people.

The Russian character is distinguished by such qualities as conciliarity and nationality, striving for something infinite. Our nation has religious and ethnic tolerance. A Russian person is constantly dissatisfied with what he currently has, he always wants something different. The peculiarity of the Russian soul is explained, on the one hand, by “having your head in the clouds,” and on the other, by the inability to cope with your emotions. We either contain them as much as possible, or release them all at once. Maybe that’s why there is so much soulfulness in our culture.

The features of the Russian national character are reflected most accurately in works of folk art. It is worth highlighting fairy tales and epics here. The Russian man wants a better future, but he is too lazy to actually do anything for this. He would rather resort to the help of a goldfish or a talking pike. Probably the most popular character in our fairy tales is Ivan the Fool. And this is not without reason. After all, behind the outwardly careless, lazy son of an ordinary Russian peasant who can’t do anything, hides a pure soul. Ivan is kind, sympathetic, savvy, naive, compassionate. At the end of the tale, he always wins over the prudent and pragmatic royal son. That's why people consider him their hero.

The feeling of patriotism among the Russian people, it seems to me, is beyond doubt. For a long time, both old people and children fought against invaders and occupiers. Suffice it to recall the Patriotic War of 1812, when the entire people, the entire army asked to give battle to the French.

The character of a Russian woman deserves special attention. Enormous strength of will and spirit forces her to sacrifice everything for the sake of a person close to her. She can follow her beloved even to the ends of the earth, and this will not be a blind and obsessive following, as is customary in eastern countries, and this is a conscious and independent act. You can take as an example the wives of the Decembrists and some writers and poets sent into exile in Siberia. These women very consciously deprived themselves of everything for the sake of their husbands.

One cannot help but mention the cheerful and perky disposition and sense of humor of Russians. No matter how hard it is, a Russian person will always find a place for fun and joy, and if it’s not hard and everything is fine, then the scope of the fun is guaranteed. They have spoken, are speaking, and will continue to speak about the breadth of the Russian soul. A Russian person simply needs to go wild, make a splash, show off, even if for this he has to give away his last shirt.

Since ancient times, there has been no place for self-interest in the Russian character; material values ​​have never come to the fore. A Russian person has always been able to make enormous efforts in the name of high ideals, be it the defense of the Motherland or the upholding of sacred values.

A harsh and difficult life has taught Russians to be content and get by with what they have. Constant self-restraint has left its mark. That is why the desire for monetary accumulation and wealth at any cost was not widespread among our people. This was the privilege of Europe.

For Russians, oral communication is very important. folk art. Knowing proverbs, sayings, fairy tales and phraseological units that reflect the reality of our lives, a person was considered educated, worldly wise, and possessing folk spirituality. Spirituality is also one of the characteristic traits of a Russian person.

Due to increased emotionality, our people are characterized by openness and sincerity. This is especially evident in communication. If we take Europe as an example, then individualism is highly developed there, which is protected in every possible way, but here, on the contrary, people are interested in what is happening in the lives of those around them, and a Russian person will never refuse to talk about his life. This also most likely includes compassion - another very Russian character trait.

Along with positive qualities, such as generosity, breadth of soul, openness, courage, there is one that is certainly negative. I'm talking about drunkenness. But it is not something that has gone hand in hand with us throughout the country's history. No, this is an illness that we caught relatively recently and cannot get rid of it. After all, we did not invent vodka, it was brought to us only in the 15th century, and it did not immediately become popular. Therefore, to say that drunkenness is distinguishing feature and the peculiarity of our national character cannot be.

It is also worth noting a feature that makes you both surprised and delighted - this is the responsiveness of the Russian people. It is embedded in us from childhood. When helping someone, our person is often guided by the proverb: “What comes around, so will it come back.” Which, in general, is correct.

National character is not static, it constantly changes as society changes and, in turn, has its impact on it. The Russian national character that has emerged today has similarities with the character that once existed before. Some features remain, some are lost. But the basis and essence have been preserved.

“Nations in many ways repeat the destinies of individual people. They also have their own home, work, live better or worse, but the main thing is that, like people, they are unique individuals with their own habits and character, with their own way of understanding things. History has made such peoples, all the circumstances of their long history, difficult life“- the Russian philosopher Ilyin spoke figuratively about the national character of the people.

In a broad sense, national character is a natural phenomenon. Its bearers, ethnic groups, come and go; with them come and go various types of ethno-national character. In the narrow sense, national character is a historical phenomenon; national character changes over time as the people self-organize, the historical situation changes and the historical tasks facing society. Thus, the circumstances of the peaceful coexistence of various ethnic groups on the territory of European Russia gave rise, in the words of the writer F.M. Dostoevsky, national tolerance and “worldwide responsiveness” of Russians.

An important feature of the Russian character was patience, which ensured survival in natural and climatic conditions. of Eastern Europe. Added to this were constant wars, upheavals, and the hardships of life under the 250-year-old Tatar-Mongol yoke. In Rus' they said: “God endured and commanded us,” “For patience God gives salvation,” “Patience and labor will grind everything down.” The main condition for patience was its moral validity.

The life of a Russian person required unification into work collectives, artels, and communities. A person’s personal interests and his well-being were often placed below the well-being of the community and the state. Harsh life required fulfillment of duty, endless overcoming of difficulties; Circumstances often acted not on the side of a person, but against him, so the fulfillment of what the Great Russians planned was perceived as rare luck, luck, a gift of fate. Due to low productivity and riskiness, unpredictability of results, work for the Russian peasant became a natural, God-given occupation, rather, a punishment (suffering - from the word “suffering”).

Open borders and constant external threat fostered in Russian people feelings of self-sacrifice and heroism. The consciousness of the people connected foreign invasions with the sinfulness of people. Invasions are punishments for sins and a test of perseverance and pleasing to God. Therefore, in Rus' it has always been righteous “not sparing your belly” to defend your land from the “infidels”.

The soul of the people was largely nurtured by Orthodoxy. The philosopher S. Bulgakov wrote: “The people’s worldview and spiritual way of life are determined by the Faith of Christ. No matter how far the distance between ideal and reality may be here, the norm is Christian asceticism. Asceticism is the whole story, with the Tatars oppressing him, standing at the post of guarding civilization in this cruel climate, with eternal hunger strikes, cold, suffering.” The values ​​of Orthodoxy merged with moral values and formed the moral core of the people.

Traits of the Russian national character include irrationality of thinking, when figurative, emotional forms prevail over conceptual ones, when practicality and prudence recede into the background. This is also one of the sides of Russian “dual faith,” that is, the preservation and mutual integration of paganism and Orthodoxy.

Patience and humility went hand in hand with love of freedom. Byzantine and Arab authors wrote about the love of freedom of the Slavs in ancient times. The cruelest serfdom could easily coexist with the love of freedom as long as it did not encroach on inner world person or until unlimited violence ensued. Protest resulted in uprisings and, more often than not, retreat to undeveloped lands. The geopolitical realities of Eastern Europe and Siberia allowed this to be done for many centuries.

At the same time, the best features of the national character crystallized within subethnic groups. In the minds of the Cossack, military valor and fulfillment of duty were elevated to absolutes, in the minds of the Siberian - inflexibility, perseverance and perseverance.

Thus, the partially examined traits of the Russian character make it possible to highlight duality, the struggle of opposites. According to the philosopher N. Berdyaev, Russia itself is “dual”: it has united various cultures, “Russia is East-West.”

Academician D.S. Likhachev wrote: “We need to understand the traits of the Russian character... Correctly directed. These traits are an invaluable quality of a Russian person. The revival of self-esteem, the revival of conscience and the concept of honesty - this is in general outline what we need."

IN. Klyuchevsky:“The prudent Great Russian sometimes loves, headlong, to choose the most hopeless and imprudent solution, contrasting the whim of nature with the whim of his own courage. This inclination to tease happiness, to play with luck is the Great Russian maybe. No people in Europe are capable of such intense labor. a short time, which a Great Russian can develop, ... we will not find such a lack of habit of even, moderate and measured, constant work, as in Great Russia.

He is generally reserved and cautious, even timid, always on his own mind... self-doubt excites his strength, and success weakens it. The inability to calculate in advance, figure out a plan of action and go straight to the intended goal was noticeably reflected in the mentality of the Great Russian... he became more cautious than prudent... Russian people are strong in hindsight...”

ON THE. Berdyaev:“In a Russian person there is no narrowness of a European person, concentrating his energy on a small space of the soul, there is no this prudence, economy of space and time... The power of breadth over the Russian soul gives rise to a whole series of Russian qualities and Russian shortcomings. Russian laziness, carelessness, lack of initiative, weak developed sense responsibilities are associated with this. The land rules over the Russian man... The Russian man, the man of the earth, feels helpless to take possession of these spaces and organize them. He is too accustomed to entrust this organization to the central government...”

Alfred Goettner:“The severity and stinginess of nature, deprived, however, of the wild power of the sea and high mountains, taught him the passive virtues of contentment with little, patience, obedience - virtues further strengthened by the history of the country...”