Reflecting on Russian CivilizationBook Review: Shkaratan O.I., Leksin V.N., Yastrebov G.A. (eds.) (2015) Rossiya kak tsivilizatsiya: Materialy k razmyshleniyu [Russia as a Civilization: Readings for Reflections], Moscow: Mir Rossii

Abstract

Natal’ya Zarubina – Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Department of Sociology, Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Address: 76, Vernadskogo Prospect, Moscow, 119454, Russian Federation. E-mail: n-zarubina@yandex.ru

The book under review brings together pieces written by different authors, who unravel the nexus of the historical, cultural and institutional dynamics of Russia using the civilization approach. It stands in clear opposition to those who view modernization as a linear process and completely disbands the idea of catch-up development. The authors generally agree that many specific features, and the divergence of post-socialist transformations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries were in many ways pre-destined by civilizational differences. Particularly, in the case of Russia, they highlight the inconsistency of the current institutional setting, which emerged as a response to catch-up modernization, and the fact that the reformers largely neglected the nature and features of the human and cultural capital of the Russian population.