Civilizational Features of Russia’s Development in the Context of Modern Social Transformations

ABSTRACT

This article examines the main civilizational features of Russia’s development and their role in the modern socio-political transformations of Russian society. These features, according to the author, include the leading role of the state in the implementation of development projects and resource mobilization;uneven socio-political development in time and space (development of society by fits and starts);multiple conflicting tendencies in social dynamics;and periodic change of cultural and geopolitical vectors of development caused by social divisions and cleavages. The author attributes many of these features to the fact that Russia occupies an intermediate geographical, geopolitical and cultural-civilizational position between the Western and Eastern civilizations. The author argues that mere uncritical borrowing and copying of Western political institutions without reconfigurng and adapting them to the conditions of modern Russia will either make these institutions less effective or seriously distort them. He concludes that in developing and implementing socio-political and economic projects, it is essential to take into account both the general civilization features of Russia and the internal Russian regional and local specifics, local socio-cultural norms and traditions, since ignoring them may undermine the main social, cultural and value structures of Russian society. Further, amid today's global socio-political transformations and the numerous challenges associated with them, it is extremely important for successful socio-political development to organically combine traditions with the necessary social innovations. However, as shown in the article, present-day Russia does not have such an organic combination, and this is a serious hindrance to socio-economic and cultural development. This prompts the need to combine centralized planning and the implementation of federal development projects with the initiatives and proposals of local and regional communities, to take into account not only regional and local bureaucratic structures, but also “grassroots” initiatives coming from groups of active citizens and from public organizations, volunteers and so on. The author comes to the conclusion that this is especially important in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis socio-economic and political phenomena it causes. © 2022, Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.