Tarasenko, V. G. Eurasian Civilization in World Politics and Illusion of the Dominating West

Abstract: The author of the article describes specific features of Eurasian mentality and provides insight into the crisis of the Western society. The author shows that in order to integrate into the global civilization process, the Russian society needs to complete a long period in history and go through transitional periods on its way to the self-determination of social system. The comparative method of research is widely used in modern civilization studies and allows to define and compare different variants and levels of social development as well as problems of international cooperation and interdependence. Nikolai Berdyaev who denied ‘religious ethics’ which is based on the idea of spiritual (religious) salvation, developed the teaching about ‘salvation’ as the reunion with the Universe through faith in God. He believed that national religion should be the very first matter a historian should pay attention to. If we viewed the European history without Christianity or Asian history without Buddhism, we would understand nothing, he said. However, the events in the XX century and at the beginning of the XXI century developed according to their own civilizational patterns and did not fulfi ll the expectations of the global community and so did the situation in Russia. Development of Russia throughout the XX century and up to the present was rather chaotic and discontinuous. Itonly proved the Eurasian distinctive character which allows today to reconsider the image of our country in terms of the civilization approach to political processes. The author describes the crisis of the Western society and defines the role of religion in the future development of our country. The author also shows that modernization of Russia should be viewed and established based on the approach considering specific features of the Eurasian society which would allow Russia to become the part of the global civilization process. All what is said in this article shows that there is a need in creating new approaches to understanding the Eurasian (Russian) civilization under the conditions of the crisis of the Western society. The author empathizes that the overall image of Russia is created based on the geopolitical and socio-cultural synthesis. The author defines the role of religion in social life and defines the historical processes ongoing in Russia at the end of the XX century.

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