"Russian World" as a modern Russian civil religion: the political and philosophical dimension of the study

Abstract

I will start from the various ways of defining and describing the phenomenon of the "Russian world" (as an ideology, a set of different ideologies or ideologemes, political and historical myths, etc.) and apply it to the description of the "Russian world" as a Russian civil religion. The correct definition and classification of this phenomenon is of great theoretical, methodological, social and political importance. This allows for a qualitative description of the system and network of ideas, beliefs, values, positions and opinions in contemporary Russian society, especially those that have official state recognition and are used to legitimise Russian domestic and foreign policy. The complexity of this description lies in a set of problems: the variety of statements by Russian political and public figures, the seeming absence of a single dogmatic ideological system, the presence of several trends that are in dispute with each other (Orthodox, Eurasian and other approaches), a reasonable suspicion of the deliberate falsity of explicit political utterances (such as declarations of "anti-fascism" or "internationalism"), etc. The concept of "civil religion" allows us to avoid the problems associated with the concepts of "political ideology" or "political religion", to cover the entire Russian imaginary, to point to its internal integrity and historical continuity (despite all local and circumstantial differences). This allows us to go beyond the "Putin regime" and the Russian Federation of the 20s of the 21st century and see the connection between Russian imperialist aggression and Russian culture, the basic mythologemes and images that are spread even by people who otherwise oppose Russian aggression, which is very important in the context of critical research of Russian culture and history, its decolonisation and detotalitarianisation.