The problem of Russia vs. Europe in the emigrant writings of Vladimir Weidle

Abstract

This paper explores the evolution of views on the problem of Russian-European identity of Vladimir Vasilyevich Weidle (1895–1979), major Russian philosopher and culture theorist of the Silver age, whose emigrant works some scholars classify as ‘new Westernism’. In distinction to Russian ‘anti-Westerners’ who adhered to the idea of an isolated and autarchic ‘Russian civilization’, Weidle was convinced that by integrating with Europe Russia does not lose, but, on the contrary, acquires her cultural identity. To prove this, he recalls the deeds of Peter the Great who, far from ‘inculcating’ Europe in Russia, only ‘restored’ Russia to Europe, and quotes the most illustrious representatives of Russian national culture, in whose work the Russian and the European identity are inseparable from one another.