From Political Equilibrium to the Decrepitude of the State

In Russia, the fifth edition (after 1991) of N. Ya. Danilevsky's book "Russia and Europe" was recently published. In the annotation to the book, the author is called "a great Russian thinker, the founder of the doctrine of civilizations, who substantiated the idea that there is no and cannot be a universal human civilization". Judging by the frequency of reprints (approximately one edition every 5-6 years), Danilevsky's given definition contains a hidden reference to the Soviet experience: in the USSR, individual works by the classics of the Soviet version of Marxism were published annually, while collected works were published less frequently compared to the rate at which "Russia and Europe" is currently published. During the 74 years of Soviet power, the collected works of K. Marx and F. Engels were published twice, and the collected works of V. I. Lenin were published five times. "As of January 1, 1990, Lenin's works had been published in our country in a total circulation of over 653 million copies in 125 languages!.. Some works were especially "lucky". Thus, the speech about the imminent communist future - "The Tasks of the Youth Unions" - was published 660 times in a circulation of almost 50 million copies in 96 languages!". The unwritten rule of such publishing practice is: a classic is someone who contributed to the creation and strengthening of the USSR. Therefore, the works of the classics of the Soviet version of Marxism turned into a source of political and ideological dogmatism, quotational thinking and constant state income through multiple reprints. A simple calculation shows that over the past thirty years, the publication of Russia and Europe has also served the transition from the slogans of “new thinking,” “a 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 lost its role as a criterion for the reproduction and evaluation of everything and everyone. In place of the former USSR, 15 states emerged, including Russia. Can Danilevsky be considered a classic of Russia? A coin of the Bank of Russia has already been issued in his honor, on which, together with a bas-relief of the author, an open book “Russia and Europe” is depicted. The article provides an author’s essay on the emerging issues.