Russia and Europe

Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky – a Russian philosopher, sociologist, cultural scientist, and publicist. It was he who, in the book "Russia and Europe" (1869), first defined civilization as the main form of organizing human communities. The unique beginnings inherent only to certain nations form original cultural-historical types. Each civilization, as a spiritual unity, exists in its own coordinate system. An attempt by one civilization to impose its system of spiritual values on another leads to catastrophe and the destruction of the latter. Danilevsky identified ten already incarnated types and prophesied the triumph of the eleventh – the Russian-Slavic. The publication of "Russia and Europe" caused a strong public resonance. F.M. Dostoevsky received Danilevsky's work "Russia and Europe" with enthusiasm, calling it "the bedside book of every Russian." Another great philosopher, Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov, criticized it, believing that the "real movement of history" consists precisely in the transmission of "cultural beginnings" between nations. The questions raised by Danilevsky about the closedness and openness of civilizations, about "authenticity" and globalization, remain relevant today.