PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Contemporary discussions often mention a "transatlantic model of values", and there is an impression that Russia has nothing to do with it: Russia's way to "modernity" and the concept of modernization born there seemingly differs greatly from the former. The author of the article argues against this opinion and shows that Russia played an important role in shaping of the ideas of modernization in 18th century Europe. By the early 20th c. Russia was heavily involved into debates over modernization, and the ideas of "socialist modernization" were closely linked to European views different from American paradigm. The article is focused on the early 18th c. when hopes of the thinkers of the early Enlightenment about the perfection of the world and its people based on reason were revived because of the westernizing policy of Peter I. Then the author discusses the 2nd half of the 19th c., when Russian society debated the ideas of progress and formed its own views of modernization rooted in the concept of the its own backwardness. The final section of the article discusses those Russian views of modernization that later determined a number of characteristics of Soviet history. The author rejects the concept of "multiple modernizations" because he finds main characteristics of modernization in each if its versions. Thus, Russian-Soviet views are part of the European concept of modernization