The intellectual and historical development of anti-westernism in Russian foreing policy

Abstract

As it is known, in discussions pertaining to Russia and its place in world politics, the assumption that there is a profound and crucial difference between Russia and the Western World is usually taken for granted like a given fact. The mainstay of this view is the exclusion of Russia from the Roman-German law system because of Orthodox legacy of Byzantium inherited by Russia and the Mongol invasions. In fact this widespread assumption of the West has been acknowledged by Russia too. This "sorting out of Russia" tendency of the West has its counterpart in Russia as an Anti - Western sentiment. However the development of the Anti-Western vision in Russia is by a large extent the product of the problematic modernization of the country. The sociological and the psychological responses aroused by the modernization, in time, has transformed into the Anti-Western movement which would take an important place in Russian political life. The West and its values has always been a major topos in contemporary Russian thought born out of the modern-tradition conflict. Nevertheless, the Anti-Western movement depends more on the material-political reasons than the philosophical and cultural grounds since it is possible to cite many political incidents that could reinforce the negative Western image by justifying and validating it. This study aims to examine the historical and intellectual development of the Anti-Russian streak in contemporary Russian thought.