Russian Culture – Between Europe and Asia

The question of whether Russia belongs to Europe or not remains very controversial. It was and still is a main topic among international discourses.

Text von Nadja Kwapil

An examination of the relevant literature indicates that numerous cultural and geographic publications include considerable coverage towards this issue – the so called “in between-position” of Russia.

In the 20^th century, since it became apparent that the annexion of Russia to the West was unsuccessful, a specific term or trend came into being, the so called Eurasism. The term Eurasia is an amalgam of Europe and Asia. From a geographic point of view, Europe and Asia have been viewed as coherent land masses since 250 years – although, there is no exact historical or legal definition of the border between Europe and Asia. Moreover it has to be taken into consideration that the term “Europe” is a notion of the ancient world, while today in Japan, South America and even in Eastern European countries Europe isn´t to be seen as a separate continent. In contrast these countries do consider Eurasia as an integrated continent, between Africa, America, Australia, and the Antarctica.

Eurasism – Cornerstone of Russian identity

Nikolaj Trubeckoj is one of the most popular representatives of the “Eurasian school”. The Eurasian school refers to the classical historical philosophy of Konstantin Leontjev. Currently, the Eurasian concept remains very popular in Russia, it offers an innovative alternative to the older theory of the different types of culture. This previous theory compares every culture with human life, it assumes that every culture lives different periods: birth, rise, decline and death. But since it had been more and more reconsidered a new – the Eurasian – concept could finally evolve. In times of crises and instability, the concept of Eurasism could offer the possibility of coming to terms with the past and to determine future prospects.

Contradicitons

Due to different tendencies of world history coming from the east and the west and which coincided in the Russian people, Russia became a nation of inherent opposites and contrasts. These contradictions of Russian character were often discussed by historians. Contradictions between anarchy and fidelity to state authority, patriotism and cosmopolitism, conformity and resistance, discipline and weakness, tolerance and fanaticism. The concept Eurasia was since then used by Russians to associate these different tendencies, to built kind of a third state – it was the so called rebirth of Russia. These contradictions within the Russian state were the reason for the strong need, interest and approval to the Eurasian concept – one of the most important cornerstones for Russian identity in that it allows Russia to maintain aspects of both cultures.

Eurasism –  Neo-Racism?

Within the concept of Eurasism it seemed also to be possible to emphasize the uniqueness and independence of Russian culture. There is and has always been a strong interest among Russian people to keep the totality of the Russian nation and national identity; And to make clear that the evolution of Russian culture takes place outside the west and the east, although there exists a relation to both of them. In fact, racist tendencies among Eurasian ideas do exist.

The Eurasian concept basically criticizes the European centrism, it tries to prevent Russia from modern western influences. Although the fact that there are also European-friendly tendencies in Russia, opinion poll results show that most of the Russian people refuse the European western concepts, like democracy, liberty of information, globalization, and that they don´t feel as members of European culture.

Russian Uniqueness

In some Russian author´s point of view –  in Pitrim Sorokin´s opinion for example -, Europe is not a geographic unity or a geographically integrated whole. Appropriately to them, it is just a very western peninsula of Asia. But on the other side, they claim that Europe is cultural integrated and that Russia has nothing in common with the culture of Europe: Russia was never part of the Holy Roman Empire, nor of feudal systems. It never implemented the catholic or protestant religion as a whole. It never allowed or experienced freedom of thought – in short and in their point of view, Russians‘ development was completely independent of Europe s evolution. Europe refers to Rome as a cultural origin, while Russia looks to Byzantine.

Pitrim Sorokin describes the battle between European and Russian culture in several of his discourses: According to him, Slavonic culture and community must preserve and maintain the worlds balance and protect it against the hegemony of Europe. He strongly believes that Europeans do not like Russians, for Europeans are afraid of their own decline; and that they would feel the decline of European culture, while Slavonic culture would be rising.

In short, Russia is seen as the liberator of the Slavonic people or nation.

Common Values

This point of view is of course very one sided: it has to be taken in consideration that Europe and Russia have historically been politically and culturally intertwined. Political and cultural events in Europe have impacted Russia, and vice versa. Moreover they were associated through the war against Turkish and Mongolean people. Since the 19th century, Russia participated in every important event of European history and was therefore part of the European national system. European political culture influenced Russian culture, even though Russian people tried to prevent it.
Moreover, although Russia is an orthodox nation and Europe catholic and protestant, these religions share basic tenets and elements of the christian culture – in fact, Russia and Europe share many common values and attitudes.

A matter of Opinion

In conclusion, it appears difficult to find a correct answer to the question of whether Russia belongs to the east to the west or to Eurasia. In order to answer the question of belonging, it will be necessary to define the term „cultural nation.“ Cultural nation describes the nation as a community that is associated through language, tradition, culture and religion. The term conveys the sense of belonging that is independent of origins or extraction, and of national borders. So a cultural nation can exist without a state. Thus, the term cultural nation is subjective and based upon the way that people and groups view themselves. It depends like the general term of national culture of how one would like to be seen.