Russian and American Cultures

Two Worlds a World Apart

Konstantin V. Kustanovich

Russia is a great country—both in terms of size and its achievements. It is the largest country in the world and, perhaps, the richest one as well, if one counts all its natural resources combined. The Russian population is well educated and its sciences and technology are quite advanced. It is also a country with political, legal, and economic systems similar to those in Western Europe and North America. What then prevents it from joining the community of Western democratic societies? What makes it always slide back into the habitual mode of authoritarianism, nationalism, and permeating corruption even when formal democratic institutions and structures are installed? Why does it stubbornly resist any attempts to promote democracy and liberalism? Is it because some curse hangs over the country and it always ends up in the hands of a bad government? The author of this book is convinced that the Russian government is just a derivative of the entire population—the entire culture.

The book is thus devoted to Russian culture in comparison with Western cultures and the United States in particular. The author begins this juxtaposition at the dawn of Russian history—the Christianization of Russia in the late tenth century. Religion played a tremendous role in shaping Russian tradition from the tenth through the seventeenth centuries. Choosing Greek Orthodoxy Russia made the first and decisive step away from Western Christianity inheriting the Byzantine kind of authoritarianism and banning not only the religious doctrine but also all knowledge coming from the West including Latin. The author also demonstrates how serfdom and the agricultural commune, which lasted virtually into the twentieth century, fostered the culture of collectivism, nationalism, and legal nihilism. The book’s last part explores the psychology of Russian perceptions of the United States—a crucial factor in the relationships between the two countries. Russian culture, the author contends, persists due to inculcating children during the early childhood socialization, thus passing values and myths from generation to generation.

This book represents a truly interdisciplinary project employing ideas and research results from such disciplines as cultural and psychological anthropology, social psychology, psychology of child development, sociology, semiology, law, and history of Russia and Russian religion.

Lexington Books

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-3833-6 • Hardback • November 2018 • $95.00 • (£65.00)

978-1-4985-3834-3 • eBook • November 2018 • $90.00 • (£60.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Psychology / Social Psychology, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Comparative Cultural Studies, Social Science / World / Russia

Russian and American Cultures

Two Worlds a World Apart

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Russia is a great country—both in terms of size and its achievements. It is the largest country in the world and, perhaps, the richest one as well, if one counts all its natural resources combined. The Russian population is well educated and its sciences and technology are quite advanced. It is also a country with political, legal, and economic systems similar to those in Western Europe and North America. What then prevents it from joining the community of Western democratic societies? What makes it always slide back into the habitual mode of authoritarianism, nationalism, and permeating corruption even when formal democratic institutions and structures are installed? Why does it stubbornly resist any attempts to promote democracy and liberalism? Is it because some curse hangs over the country and it always ends up in the hands of a bad government? The author of this book is convinced that the Russian government is just a derivative of the entire population—the entire culture.

The book is thus devoted to Russian culture in comparison with Western cultures and the United States in particular. The author begins this juxtaposition at the dawn of Russian history—the Christianization of Russia in the late tenth century. Religion played a tremendous role in shaping Russian tradition from the tenth through the seventeenth centuries. Choosing Greek Orthodoxy Russia made the first and decisive step away from Western Christianity inheriting the Byzantine kind of authoritarianism and banning not only the religious doctrine but also all knowledge coming from the West including Latin. The author also demonstrates how serfdom and the agricultural commune, which lasted virtually into the twentieth century, fostered the culture of collectivism, nationalism, and legal nihilism. The book’s last part explores the psychology of Russian perceptions of the United States—a crucial factor in the relationships between the two countries. Russian culture, the author contends, persists due to inculcating children during the early childhood socialization, thus passing values and myths from generation to generation.

This book represents a truly interdisciplinary project employing ideas and research results from such disciplines as cultural and psychological anthropology, social psychology, psychology of child development, sociology, semiology, law, and history of Russia and Russian religion.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-3833-6 • Hardback • November 2018 • $95.00 • (£65.00)

978-1-4985-3834-3 • eBook • November 2018 • $90.00 • (£60.00)

Subjects: History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Psychology / Social Psychology, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Comparative Cultural Studies, Social Science / World / Russia

Author

Konstantin V. Kustanovich is professor emeritus of Russian at Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

Part I: Religion

Chapter 1: Spirituality and Education in Early Medieval Rus’

Chapter 2: Religious Culture in Muscovy: The Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries

Chapter 3: St. Petersburg: Development of Secular Culture

Chapter 4: Religion in Russia Today

Chapter 5: A Culture Oriented toward Expression: The Legacy

Part II: Russian Collectivism and the Work Ethic

Chapter 6: Historical Origins of the Russian Work Ethic

Chapter 7: Attitudes toward Work through the Eyes of Russian Literature

Part III: Legal Nihilism: The Tradition of Law and Morality in Russia

Chapter 8: A Case Study: Vitaly Kaloyev—A Murderer or a Hero?

Chapter 9: Concepts of Legal Nihilism in the Contemporary Russian Context

Chapter 10: Historical Roots of Russian Legal Nihilism

Chapter 11: Law in Contemporary Russia

Part IV: Perceptions and Reactions

Chapter 12: Russian Perceptions of America: Historical Perspective

Chapter 13: Individual Characteristics of Consciousness and Perception of a Foreign Culture

Chapter 14: Development of Individual Consciousness within National Culture

Chapter 15: Asymmetry in Russians’ Perception of America and Americans’ Perception of Russia

Reviews

Konstantin V. Kustanovich’s book is unique in its well-substantiated historical approach to the development of Russian culture. Going back to the beginnings of the centralized Moscow state in the fifteenth century and moving through the centuries to today’s reality, he convincingly establishes the continuity and persistency of such core cultural aspects as Russia’s peculiar kind of Christianity, collectivism, legal nihilism, and nationalism. He also connects these features of national culture to the way Russians perceive America. The book represents a valuable contribution to understanding Russian culture vis-à-vis the Western world.
— Andrei V. Korobkov, Middle Tennessee State University

This study is a perceptive ‘De Tocquevillian’ view of American and Russian cultures by a Russian scholar familiar with both countries, full of insights that deserve thoughtful consideration by American and Russian policymakers alike – with attention to latent considerations and provocative parallels, contemporary and historical which continue to bedevil efforts to find a common language and accommodations.
— William E. Butler, Pennsylvania State University

Russian and American Cultures

Two Worlds a World Apart

Konstantin V. Kustanovich

Russian and American Cultures

Two Worlds a World Apart

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