Boris Mezhuev

The analyses of the arguments and discussion of many conservative Russian publicists on the presence and existence of our country’s special “civilizational code”, which differs it from the West, is presented in the article. An attempt to rationally understand, what can be the sense of such type of thoughts, is conducted, as also the attempt to understand why does this topic earns to be considered by politologists and sociologists. The latter should in any case answer the question, if the newest western sociocultural innovations would be mastered and accepted by Russia, and if not, how can the resistance to changes be explained. The author bases on the intellectual conceptualization of the “Russian idea” in the history of Russian philosophy, on the school of Russian civilizational analyses from N.Ya. Danilevsky to V.L. Tsymbursky. He makes an assumption that “civilizational apartness” of Russia has its own spiritual prerequisites and tries to define, what they can be. The author’s main assumption presupposes, that Russian culture resists the common European trend of patriarchal decline in family, church and state. By itself this resistance can have both positive and negative consequences. However, it is obvious that exactly this indicates now, for which extent Russia’s claims for special civilizational status can be considered as real.