Issue #48

Abstract: N.Y. Danilevsky’s book “Russia and Europe” has been published in Russia again. In the abstract, the author is called “a great Russian thinker, the founder of the doctrine of civilizations, who justified the idea that there is no universal human civilization and cannot be” [Danilevsky, 2023: 2]. Judging by the frequency of reprints, the above definition of Danilevsky contains a hidden reference to the Soviet experience: in the USSR, individual works of classics of the Soviet version of Marxism were published annually, while collected works were published less frequently compared to the pace of the current edition of Russia and Europe. During the 74 years of the existence of Soviet power, the collection of works by K. Marx and F. Engels was published twice, and five times the collected works of V.I. Lenin. “On January 1, 1990, Lenin’s works were published in our country with a total circulation of more than 653 million copies in 125 languages!.. Some works are especially “lucky”. So, the speech about the near communist future — “Tasks of Youth Unions” — was published 660 times in circulation. The unwritten rule of such publishing practice says: a classic is someone who contributed to the theoretical justification, political creation and ideological strengthening of the USSR. Therefore, the works of the classics of the Soviet version of Marxism turned into a source of dogmatism, quotative thinking and constant state income through republication. An elementary calculation shows that in the thirty–odd post-Soviet years, the publication of “Russia and Europe” also serves the transition from the slogans of “new thinking”, “common path of civilization” and “Europe is our common home” to the current propaganda of “spiritual bonds” and “traditional values” of Russia. But the USSR collapsed. The Soviet era has lost its role as a criterion for reproducing and evaluating everything and everything. 15 states, including Russia, emerged on the site of the former USSR. Can Danilevsky be considered a classic of Russia? Only after 2000, his book was published in 13 publishing houses a total of 22 times. Moreover, all of them are commercially oriented to a wide audience and do not have a scientific apparatus [Sidorin, 2024: 83–84]. This trend has intertwined with another: in honor of Danilevsky, a coin of the Bank of Russia has already been issued, on which, together with the bas-relief of the author, an open book “Russia and Europe” is depicted. In other words, the current Russian merchants and bankers gave a positive answer to the question before other social groups. Scientists and ideologists are following them [Bazhov, 2024: 159–196]. It is necessary to comprehend this fact.