Reception of the "Russian Idea" in the Context of Rethinking Ideas About the Past

The article presents the results of a study of the reception of the "Russian idea" in the context of rethinking the concepts of "past", "tradition", "continuity". Methodological innovations are highlighted, the sequence of which led to a rethinking of the relationship between the past and the present and allowed us to formulate the theory of reception as a methodological basis for the perception of broadcast ideas. Two types of reception of ideas are distinguished: spontaneous and theoretical. It is shown that any attempts to think of the "Russian idea" outside the dialectical unity of universality and "Russianness" turn it either into a nationalist idea or into a logically contradictory concept. The theoretical reception of the "Russian idea" does not consist in searching for or defending its specific formulations but in restoring and clarifying the ambivalent nature of its inherent universality, the meaning of which Russian religious philosophy derives from Byzantine culture. Among the historical conditions for the articulation of the "Russian idea" is the decisive role played by the emancipation of culture that began in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century, when thinkers, writers, poets, and publicists turned into heralds of ideas and leaders of the masses. This creates prerequisites not only for the articulation of the "Russian idea" but also for its subsequent reception within the framework of socio-political discourse. The Russian idea concept is articulated by representatives of the Russian religious Renaissance as a philosophical system based on the principle of unity, the ambivalent meaning of which is derived from the Byzantine culture. The specificity of the universalism of the "Russian idea" discovered in the course of theoretical reception allows us to correlate the Messianism inherent in it with the highlighted meanings of unity. The Russian idea is "loaded" with interpretations that turn it into a set of competing ideologies and is unilaterally associated with the peculiarities of national identity and Russian mentality as a result of the transfer to the field of political discourse.