Russia and the West: «Different Time Zones»

Traits that some have regarded as distinctively Russian had appeared previously in Europe—sometimes two, three, or more centuries earlier, albeit with variations. Nevertheless, like any country, Russia did have distinctive features brought about by religion, geography, and political and economic conditions. Russia’s location on the periphery of Europe, its multinational population, and the influence of its eastern neighbors reinforced these features. Russia embraced Western civilization later than other European countries. Whereas after the fall of the Roman empire most people in western Europe occupied a relatively familiar and well delimited territory containing previously developed centers of Roman culture, Russia’s historical development occurred in an uncivilized, immense, and constantly expanding space. Russia lagged behind the rest of Europe; but this does not preclude its basic similarity to Europe in the social, economic, political, and cultural spheres. Russians and Europeans have shared common features of development, particularly in the spheres of religion, geography, and ethnicity. However, Russia developed asynchronously with other European countries. Russia’s Europeanization was not the product of borrowing but the inevitable result of its own evolution, essentially similar to Europe’s but delayed by the conditions of its historical environment. Although this lag placed Russia at a clear disadvantage in international power relations, it cannot be attributed to any hypothetical, peculiarly Russian moral or cultural failing; for the cultural and spiritual richness of this society, at both the popular and the elite levels, has been amply demonstrated