The lost concept of the "Russian World"

On September 5, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, signed a decree that approved the "Concept of Humanitarian Policy of the Russian Federation Abroad" described by the Western media as a foreign policy doctrine based on the concept of "the Russian world".

According to the goal and objectives of the authors of this 30-page document, the concept is intended to:

"1) strengthen Russia's international prestige

2) form an objective perception of the country abroad and

3) ensure Russia's long-term interests.

The Concept, which is closely linked to the system of school and higher education, was presented to society on the fifth day of the beginning of the academic year in Russia which indirectly indicates that it had to be finalized until the last moment. However, in reality it was formally delayed not by five days, but by decades. 

Perhaps if such a concept had been presented to the world 30 years ago, during the first years of independence after the collapse of the USSR, it might have influenced the course of history in the expanse of the vanished empire, when Moscow's influence on the suburbs, and on the world as a whole, was still significant not so much in terms of strength as in terms of centuries of humanitarian influence.

Russian influence was strong not in terms of spreading Russianness, but in the reproduction of the symbiosis of Russian and Western culture (which was and still is much more multifaceted), where the influence of the latter was significant on Russia itself, and through it on the entire space of the empire. It was this "international" mission of Russia that made it strong, attractive and influential. 

It was through this symbiosis that the Russian elite, mentioned in the concept: Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Mendeleev, Kurchatov, began to form first. Although it would have been more correct to start with the forefathers of Russian science, historiography, poetry, philosophy. For example, with Mikhail Lomonosov, who introduced ancient Greek-syllabic versification, which laid the foundation of the Russian poetry, which then really became the property of world poetry. Or, for example, educated in Germany, a descendant of the first Rurikovich princes, the prominent figure Vasily Tatishchev, who first wrote the "History of Russia". And the followers of the European poetry and literature - Karamzin, Fonvizin, Krylov, Pushkin. This list of Russian figures closely interacting with Western science and culture in all spheres can be continued indefinitely.     

This tradition continued to develop in the Soviet times when the Russian language remained a bridge between the outside world (culture, literature, philosophy, natural sciences, etc.) and the entire Soviet expanse.  And this was perhaps the main influence of Moscow. The loss of this function as a result of the promotion of the concept of the exceptionality of the "Russian world", which in its significance drastically limited the interaction of Western and Russian cultures and thus noticeably reduced Russia's attractiveness. The said concept was transforming from an international one into a narrowly national one, even despite the fact that the Russian Federation is in fact considered to be a multinational country.      

Under such conditions, it is quite natural that the Russian language began to lose its communicative function of intercultural dialogue, and this was replaced by direct two-way communication with the outside world of all subjects of the former empire, and its satellites in different parts of the world.

It should be noted that the narrowness of the worldview of the authors of the concept, who have driven themselves into a virtual "Russian world", is confirmed by their one-sided, subjective declaration of the principles of international law, which, on the one hand, talks about its supremacy, and on the other, preaches further ignoring it with the prevalence of national interests at the expense of other interests. This concept directly declares further strengthening of ties with the forcibly annexed, unrecognized even by the members of the CIS, such quasi formations as the DPR, LPR, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria.

In view of the above, how attractive the mentioned concept may be not only for the fragments of the Russian Empire, but also for the national subjects of the Russian Federation themselves. The war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine, which would be more correctly called civil, since it takes place in the realm of ethno-politic Russian culture can be characterized as the final nail in the coffin of the "Russian world". Russia has no supporters not only in the West, as many Russians believe, but in the post-Soviet expanse as well. The concept, built on the exclusiveness of everything Russian, is in complete contradiction with the concept of integration development of Russia in the late 17th century. Therefore, the strategy signed by Putin is doomed to failure.