The book by N. Ya. Danilevsky “Russia and Europe”in the history of socio-political thought of Russia.To the 200th anniversary of his birth N. Ya. Danilevsky
Relevance: in the modern conditions of the confrontation of our state with the countries of the West, the ideas of N. Ya. Danilevsky, expressed by him in the book “Russia and Europe”, acquire a special sound. It was he who for the first time deeply studied the reasons for Europe’s “hostile” attitude towards Russia. Problem statement: the traditional dispute between “Westerners” and “Slavophiles”, as the events taking place in the world have shown, is not over. In this regard, the views of N. Ya. Danilevsky, who believed that Russia has a special path of development, that it is our state that should become a new center of power instead of the “decrepit” Romano-Germanic civilization, look very timely and require additional research. The purpose of the study: to identify the ideas of N. Ya. Danilevsky about the causes and consequences of the confrontation between Russia and Europe, consonant with modernity. Research methods: the methodology is based on the method of materialistic dialectics and historical approach, general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, system method) and private scientific methods (formal legal, comparative legal) were used. Results and key conclusions: the most important defining feature of the Western, Romano-Germanic world, according to N. Ya. Danilevsky, “is distrust, injustice, hatred of Russia on the part of governments and public opinion in Europe”. Russia is a common, civilizational enemy for Europe, the need to fight against which makes us forget all the differences in the form of government, the political regime of states. Distrust, hatred of Russia, emphasizes N. Ya. Danilevsky, arises among Europeans not as a result of the purposeful activity of the state, which, pursuing certain geopolitical, economic goals, seeks to cause distrust, hatred of another state standing in the way of achieving these goals. N. Ya. Danilevsky, citing examples from Russian, European history, argues that hostility to Russia, Slavic civilization immanently inherent in the Romano-German world, therefore, “...public opinion in Europe is much more hostile to Russia than its governmental, diplomatic spheres”. The reason for this is that the defining, most important feature of the Romano-Germanic civilization is expansionism or, as it is written in the book “Russia and Europe”, “violence”. This is expressed in its desire to conquer, subjugate the peoples of other civilizations, turn them into colonial dependence, aggressively plant its culture and religion. It is not typical for the exponent, the personification of the Slavic cultural and historical type - the Russian Empire. The various peoples that became part of it did not have or have lost their statehood, they are under the political subordination of the Russian emperor, like all other peoples, and are not subjected to national, cultural, religious discrimination, colonization.