Ukrainian and RussianSoviet cultural history: basic information - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Title: Ukrainian and RussianSoviet cultural history: basic information


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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Sub-session schedule

• Ukraine on the map of today's Europe
• the rise of Ancient Russian state centered in
  Kyiv
• is this an "Orthodox civilization"?
• Mongolian invasion and yoke
• the transformation of Moscow state into Russian
  Empire
• main cultural problems within the body of Russian
  Empire
• the disintegration of Russian Empire in 1917 and
  its restoration by Bolsheviks
• modern Ukraine a "split" land conquered by
  Russia, Turkey and Central European countries

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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Ukraine on the map of today's Europe
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Steppe invaders and slavic tribes expansion, 200
BC - 750 AD
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Dniepro valley under control of Varangians, 880 AD
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Kievan Rus expansion, 880 - 1054 AD
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Interaction of political powersregional
macro-cultural differences
Western culture
E.-Slavic culture
extreme concentration of power (tsar or "the
party" leader)
division of powers, "deconcentration" of power
based on recurring (pendulum-style) conversion
from "collegiate" to "authoritarian" ideal of
power and back again
based on a stable "triangle" of powers
(legislative, executive and judicial power)
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
"Orthorox civilization"?
1. The very situation of "imported religion" is
not unique. What is historically unique is the
situation of free choice between several
neighboring sources of cultural influence.
2. In Kievan Rus, the scenatio of
"christianization" similar to that of
North-Western Europe had been distorted by the
two external factors

• East-West Cristianity "schism" and subsequent
  fall of Byzantium

• invasion of Mongolians ("Tatars") from Asian
  steppes.

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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Mongolian invasion, 1221-1242
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
"Orthorox civilization"?
3. Mongols' cultural policy towards
Eastern-Slavic population is remarkable in two
dimensions

• religious tolerance (Orthodoxy remains official
  religion of the aboriginal Slavic population)

• Eastern techniques of state-building (imported
  by Mongols from China).

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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
"Orthorox civilization"?
4. Moscow Rus liberates itself from subordination
to Mongols by the end of the XVth century
(1380-1480). However, independent Moscow State
immediately finds itself to be the only state in
Eurasia, where Orthodoxy is adopted as official
state religion. The most important consequences
of this situations are

• cultural isolation of Moscow Rus from all
  neighbors - eastward, southward and westward

• extreme and non-alternative necessity to claim
  itself a new and unique civilizational center

• identification of "Russian" and "Orthodox" in
  official state ideology

• establishment in Moscow the fifth Orthodox
  Patriarchy as a result of political bargaining
  with Byzantine Patriarch Jeremya (1589).

• NB in Western Ukrainian lands the same trip of
  Patriarch Jeremya caused another religious
  revolution in 1596 local Orthodox hierarchs,
  discontented by Jeremya's reforms, concluded a
  "union" with Roman Church - thus establishing a
  new Church, known later as "Greek Catholic
  Church" or "Catholic Church of Eastern Rite"

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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Moscow Rus expansion, 1462-1533
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Moscow Rus expansion under Ivan the Terrible,
1533-1598
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Moscow Rus conquest of Siberia, 1619-1645
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Peter the Great (reigned 1682-1725) and his
reforms Russian turn westward.
1. "Protestant spirit" of Peter's reforms.
2. Alexander Pushkin government is "the only
European in Russia".
3. Peter the Great as Anti-Christ a popular
image among common people discontented by his
reforms.
4. "Bolshevik-style" reforms (authoritarian,
bureacracy-oriented, biased against Church as
independent institution).
5. Growing cultural gap between (narrow circle
of) ruling elite and rest of the (mostly rural)
population.
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian expansion westward, 1618-1796
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
The climax of Russia as Eurasian empire, 1796-1914
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian Empire as culturally heterogeneous state
body
1. Cultural gap between Russian ruling elite
(concentrated around state bureaucratic mashine)
and the rest of the population after Peter the
Great is incomparable both to Eastern countries
(China) and Western "nation states".
2. Russian Empire as cultural whole becomes
irrational in Russian intellectual life of the
19th century this fact will be meditated as
"enigma" and "mystery" of Russian soul.
3. Alexander Hertsen "in Russia history has been
replaced by geography".
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian Empire as culturally heterogeneous state
body
4. Russian intelligentsia appears since late-18th
century as a peculiar ideological group of
intellectuals (recruited in different times from
different social strata) with general purpose to
reunite Russian people and Russian government.
5. During the 19th century, the gap between
intelligentsia and Russian government gradually
becomes insuperable. Intelligentsia initially
attempts to mediate between the power and the
people however, as such attempts fail, next
generations of intelligentsia mostly turn to the
projects of constructing alternative "people's"
power that should replace (presumably by force)
the existing one.
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian Empire as culturally heterogeneous state
body
6. Until Bolsheviks, Russian intelligentsia finds
itself actually alienated from both government
and common people. Instead it creates its own
sub-culture and peculiar ideological trends,
either pro-European or praising Russian
uniqueness, but always highly critical towards
Russian government.
7. By the beginning of the 20th century Russian
Empire is ready to disintegrate as a house of
cards it contains within itself too many social
and cultural contradictions, both "vertical"
(between different social strata) and
"horizontal" (between Russian center and
ethnically-specific margins).
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian Empire disintegrated and restored by
Bolsheviks, 1917-1922
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian Empire as culturally heterogeneous state
body
8. The only chance to save Russian empire was to
radically simplify its social structure in either
"vertical" or "horizontal" dimensions. Bolsheviks
eliminated the entire social stratum of Russian
nobility and thus found an option to regain
control over most of the ethnically-specific
imperial margins, including Ukraine - despite its
claiming independency in 1918.
9. Bolsheviks were the only group of
intelligentsia in Russian history who managed to
unite around themselves a critical mass of common
people and actually replace the existing
"anti-people's" power by the new "people's" one.
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russian Empire as culturally heterogeneous state
body
10. After gaining power, Bolsheviks were quickly
transformed into new ruling elite that inherited
all traditional problems of Russian imperial
power in its relations to (Russian and
non-Russian) people within the empire.
11. Bolsheviks' success opened a new cycle of
Russian imperial history - including new chain of
"pendulum" moves from "collegiate" (Lenin) to
"authoritarian" (Stalin) ideal of power and back
again.
12. The same "pendulum" is still moving in Russia
today - e.g., this explains the shift from
Yeltsin to Putin.
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Is Ukrainian history just a part of Russian
imperial history?Historical maps can
significantly clarify this question...
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Ukrainian lands conquested by Lithuania
(1263-1382)
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Ukrainian lands split between neighboring states,
1589-1619
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky - the leader of
Ukrainian rebellion against Poles (1648-1655). In
1654 he initiated historical "union" with Moscow
Tsardom.
Europe by 1600 and 1700 AD
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Hetman Ivan Mazepa - the last kozzak leader who
tried to carry independent policy. In 1709 he
"betrayed" Peter the Great and joined (against
him) Swedish king Chalres XII after their defeat
in Ukraine escaped to Ottoman Empire.
Europe by 1700 and 1800 AD
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Russia presses Poland and Ottoman Empire from
Ukraine, 1750-1791
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
Ukrainian lands split between Russian and
Austrian Empires, 1850
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
In what sense Ukrainian culture is significantly
similar to Russian culture?
1. Both Russia and Ukraine are culturally
heterogeneous, i.e. formed as peculiar (but
different) mixtures of Western and various
non-Western cultural influences.
2. Both Russian and Ukrainian people have strong
tradition of political alienation from their own
state. In Russia this alienation may be overcome
by temporary perception of Russian state as
"people's" state in Ukraine - by creation of
independent Ukrainian state "for all Ukrainians".
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
In what sense Ukrainian culture is significantly
similar to Russian culture?
3. Peoples' everyday life in both Russia and
Ukraine may be represented as a "3D description"

• The dimension of state a framework of formal
  relationship (state legal regulations as they
  should work).
• The dimension of moral customs a framework of
  informal relationship (moral regulations as
  they should work).
• The dimension of power a framework of
  formal-informal relationship ("corruption" as
  selective usage of state regulations in pursuing
  private interests).

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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
In what sense Ukrainian culture significantly
differs from Russian culture?
Russia
Ukraine
Since 16th century finds itself a regional center
of cultural influence
Since 16th century finds itself thrice
marginalized towards Russia, Western Europe and
Islamic World
After Bohdan Khmelnitsky hesitates between
"joining the West" and "joining Russia"
After Peter the Great hesitates between "joining
the West" and establishing itself as an
independent non-Western civilization
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
In what sense Ukrainian culture significantly
differs from Russian culture?
Russia
Ukraine
Last subordinated to foreign power in early 17th
century (Poles captured Moscow in 1605)
Subordinated to foreign powers (Russia, Poland,
Ottoman Empire, Austrian Empire) until late 20th
century (1991)
Looks for neighboring allies from the West
(Poland), North-East (Russia) and South (Ottoman
Empire, Crimean Tatars) in order to
counterbalance their influence
Looks for neighboring allies in Europe and Asia
in order to capture their land and/or subordinate
them to Russian influence
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Ukrainian and Russian/Soviet cultural history
basic information
In what sense Ukrainian culture significantly
differs from Russian culture?
Russia
Ukraine
Russian intelligentsia strives for reunion of
people and existing Russian power, or replacement
of the existing power by the "people's" one
Ukrainian intelligentsia strives for
consolidation of Ukrainians as a separate nation
and forming Ukrainian own power instead of
foreign powers
Ukrainians, following the path of Western
neighbors, have a chance to consolidate
themselves into Western-style nation
Russians, as the dominating ethnos of a
"continental empire", are not nation in the
Western sense of the word