Peasantry as the Foundation of the Civilizational Construction of Russian Statehood: Value-Based and Humanitarian Reasons of the Tasks of Ensuring Food Sovereignty

This article presents the author’s reflections on the role and place of the phenomenon of peasantry as an actor in preserving and strengthening food and national security. Civilizational methodological toolset is in the basis of this research approach when writing a work. The peasant mentality, determined by the unique historical, social and economic conditions of the peasant life, is considered as a complex and multi aspect phenomenon. The characteristics of the Russian peasant archetype are given. It is shown that all these archetypal features correlate with ideas about traditional values. The conclusion explains that peasantry is axiologically in the focus of resistance to globalization processes, which means that again, as in all historic periods of trial, it is in the very frontier of the fight for sovereignization. Special attention is paid to the need to restore in scientific discourse the «peasantry» category, which was being tried to replace with obscure pseudo-demographic «euphemisms» (population of rural areas, etc.) for the entire post-reform period. The author also draws attention to the validity and expediency of incorporating a thoughtful study of the peasant worldview component into a multi-level educational process.