MOSCOW, September 12More than half of Russians (64%) consider Russian culture to be completely original, 19% call it a mixture of Eastern and Western culture, showed the results of a joint study by the Center for Social Design «Platform» and the Center for Socio-Political Research of Information Technologies of the Russian State University for the Humanities, which are available.
According to the results of the study, more than half of the respondents (64%) consider Russian culture to be completely original. Among them, 85% feel proud of belonging to Russia, 9% feel indifference, 3% feel negative. More often, Russia is called a completely original culture in the Southern Federal District (66%) and the Central Federal District (66%). In Moscow, 64% think so, in St. Petersburg — 63%.
Another 19% are confident that Russian culture is a mixture of Eastern and Western culture, 5% think that Russia is rather part of Western civilization, 4 % — which is rather part of the eastern.
As the authors of the study stated, respondents, as a rule, assess the differences between Russia and Europe and Asia in a positive way. “The very line of reasoning, why Russia is not Europe and not Asia,” is understood by respondents as “how Russia compares favorably with Europe and Asia.” Thus, the internal image of a “special civilization” is obviously positive,” the researchers explained.
They also noted among respondents who claim that Russia is a unique culture, an understanding of a certain injustice in the attitude of Europeans towards Russia, thanks to which the image of a special civilization is strengthened.” The very idea of synthesis, the unification of different elements into a new culture or civilization is very close to the respondents; in their opinion, it reflects the essence of the Russian approach to the world,” noted the authors of the study.
2,300 respondents took part in the study. They were combined into three focus groups: youth (from 18 to 24 years old), people over 55 years old and mixed.