Russia: A Part of the West or Apart from the West?

Abstract

Outlining the century-old debates about ‘What is Russia?’, this article — by drawing on a variety of sources such as fiction, culture, cartoons and identity — shows how Russian and Western answers to this question have impacted on each other. To do so, the article first examines the extent to which Russian society — ever since the Mongolian Yoke — has been culturally torn between Westerniser and anti-Westerniser positions. It then complements the insights into Russia’s self-reflective identity formation in two ways: by illustrating how Russia, in the West, has become portrayed as a caricature of the Western consciousness and by demonstrating how the Russian ‘Self’, in return, has been defined through the prism of Western expectations.

The Salisbury Poisoning Case and German–Russian Relations: Ambiguity and Ambivalence

“…Russia did not take up a modernisation approach: it refused to promote market economic and liberal democratic structures and it turned away from Germany's offer to assist in improving living standards for the population. 4 This is a cause for perplexity and disappointment, and how Germany acts in response has implications for Russians who are attracted to open civil society and who desire free and fair elections, an independent media, and the rule of law, backed by a separation of powers.…”

Russian Women Traveling: A Sociocultural Perspective

“…Russia is a country with its own independent cultural and historical heritage, distinct from the West. Kaempf (2010) gives an example via the meaning of the word "equality" through Western and Russian prism. In the West, the meaning centers around an "equality of opportunities" (the starting point), while in the Russian context, the focus is an "equality of material outcomes" (the outcome) (Kaempf, 2010).…”

“…Based on that, family, social institutions and the government form people's habitus and how they think. Anna's idea of bad habits from the West could come from the Russian "self" and the Western "other" (Kaempf, 2010;Rozov, 2012). In people's minds, unfamiliar issues such as the Western other were often rejected and had a negative connotation.…”