№ 2 - 2003
Kulinchenko V.A., Kulinchenko A.V.
On Spiritual-Cultural Foundations of Russia’s Modernization

The authors proceed from the thesis that factors of a spiritual and cultural order are decisive for political modernization, for modernization as a whole. The article contains criticism of approaches reducing Russia’s modernization to her westernization. The authors, furthermore, analyze the experience of the “first wave” modernization in Europe, of the construction of modern political system of the USA. In their opinion, ability to rate belief, spirituality, morality higher than rational, commonplace understanding of good constitutes the foundation of the whole Russian culture. What is important for the man of this culture is not only and not so much “law” as such (“pravo”), as “justice” (“pravda”). Orthodox self-consciousness of the Russian people took as the most important cause, devotion to service of one’s neighbours.