The Russian Idea - Toward a Civic Society

Abstract

From an historical perspective it is evident that Russia has always lived a life that was to a large extent determined by her past. Due to a number of historical factors (geographical location, climatic conditions, invasions, distance from major sources of world civilisation) Russia found herself on the periphery of Europe. She therefore faced the dilemma of finding her place either in the West or in the East. The problem of choice of Russia’s place between East and West existed throughout her history (Sakharov, 1996). The Russian philosopher P. I. Chadaev in his ‘Philosophical Letters’ said: ‘. . . we live without a past or future amidst dead stagnation. Russia has made no contribution to the fund of human civilisation and is some sort of blank in the moral order of the world.’ This was the beginning of the great debate between Westernisers and Slavophiles that influenced the development of Russian social thought in the nineteenth century.