The “Northern” identity of Russia as a subject of civilizational self-criticism (from Pyotr Chaadaev to Vasily Shulgin)

Abstract

The article examines the question of the evolution of the philosophical and historical views of Russian intellectuals Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev (1794–1856) and Vasily Vi­talievich Shulgin (1878–1976). It is noted that both of them largely depart from the usual definition of the civilizational identity of Russia in the coordinates “West-East” and pre­fer to operate with the dichotomy “North-South”. Revealing the “Northern” identity of Russia, primarily, both Chaadaev (in the nineteenth century) and Shulgin (in the twentieth century) act in the genre of civilizational self-criticism, believing the northern (Nordic) conditionality of our culture is not a dignity, but, on the contrary, a kind of “karma”, a “Сross” that Russia has to carry through centuries of history. P.Ya. Chaadaev focuses his attention primarily on the philosophical and historical aspects of the domestic “North­erners”, defining the Russian North as a place of “solidification” of Western-origin “meanings”. In turn, V.V. Shulgin focuses his attention mainly on the forms of national identity and psychology, considering the domestic “Northerners” as a way of “cooling” (and eventually – extinguishing) the national energy.