Russian folk traditional culture and modern society. Russian traditional culture History of Russian folk culture

Almost every nation has its own heritage. One of the main tools for its transmission is folk culture (folklore). Later in the article we will consider this concept in more detail, comparing it with modern trends.

general information

In the history of every nation there is also a folk one, and the latter is a more modern phenomenon. An example of popular culture: a group of young people sing songs of some famous artist while walking along the streets. The other type has significant differences. Folklore culture consists of studying sources about parables, legends and other works. Based on this, it becomes clear that in the first case we are dealing with modern mores. And folklore - folk culture - describes the life of the last century. All were created a long time ago and today are considered historical heritage. A small part of the works of past centuries has become an integral part of the modern world.

Degrees of development

There are two levels of folk culture - high and low. The first includes fairy tales, legends, ancient dances, epics, etc. Reduced is considered a manifestation of pop culture. Basically, works that have come down to us from time immemorial have anonymous creators. Fairy tales, epics, dances, songs, myths and legends are among the most valuable highly artistic works. They have nothing to do with elitist manifestations. It is generally accepted that folk culture came to the modern world from ancient times. Its subject is the nation as a whole. There are no individual creators and professional craftsmen who are valued separately. Such culture is part of people’s life and work. All works were passed down orally and had several versions. Reproduction of folk culture can be individual (this is a story, a legend), mass (carnivals), group (dance a dance or sing a song).

Audience

Society has always shown interest in folk culture, as is customary in industrial and traditional societies. However, in a post-industrial environment the situation is slightly different. If we talk about the differences between folk and high culture, they are similar to the differences between ethnic and national. What's the difference? National and high culture is transmitted only in written form. At the same time, folk and ethnic - in different ways (oral, written and others). is created by the educated population, and ethnic - by poorly educated citizens. Recently, modern audiences have become interested in folk culture and traditions.

Aesthetic component

What it is? Folk art culture is that a person who is a master, due to his ability to emphasize a certain thing and also to formulate it all into a meaningful fragment, can convey all this in the form of a song, dance or poetry. Thanks to this, the aesthetic development of the individual in particular and society in general occurs. can attract the majority of the population. All works are created by both professionals and amateurs. All works, songs, poems that are worthy of attention are inherited and become art. A person who knows how to convey his thoughts in poetry, songs or dances is spiritually rich, he has an open soul and sincerely shares his impressions. Thanks to such artists, people from year to year had the opportunity to enrich their inner world and fill the emptiness of their souls.

Russian folk culture

This phenomenon is studied by many sciences. Each discipline has its own view of the subject and its own methods of research. The volume of updated information is so large that scientists do not have time to follow it and master it for scientific enrichment and personal knowledge. The heritage of folk culture is becoming greater every day. Moreover, each object claims to be the main one, in which the whole meaning of the world is stored. This means that each discipline presents its knowledge as the most extensive in the field of spiritual values: folklore, literary studies, art criticism - from icon painting to musicology and architecture. Every person who is interested in the folk culture of Russia knows about all the successes of the listed cultures, since they are all audible, readable and put on public display. Their number and anonymity speak of the birth of a national element. And in the symbols, which they tirelessly repeat that they have become masterpieces of Russian culture, the Russian people expressed themselves.

Understanding

There are different ideas about the very term “folk culture”. Below are the main points of view:

• enlightenment of the lower classes of society;
• enlightenment of the “illiterate” society;
• a culture that was created by the elite, but was “brought down” down.

Such definitions carry a cognitive intent when viewed in a specific historical passage.

Traditional folk culture of peasants

It was formed on the basis of religious understanding. It was not so much a spiritual foundation as the main filling of spiritual life. Peasant culture had at its disposal various tools that made it possible to perceive and see the world correctly, and helped to master the perception of the sensual and supersensible. In accordance with the opinion of a number of authors, the concepts of “religiosity” and “folk culture” can be placed on the same level. The development of peasant spirituality is an important source of subsequent progress in society during the Middle Ages. At the same time, the number of cities in Europe is rapidly growing. The most determined people settled in - serfs, feudal lords who wanted to change their lives. New types of activities appeared: crafts, trade.

Chronicles

In ancient times, classical education in Rus' was not very good. Then distrust of “pagan” science triumphed. At the same time, there were a number of the most popular directions. Among them, it is worth noting iconography, church architecture, liturgical singing and chronicle writing. The Russian chronicler could tell his contemporaries the whole meaning of history; he was a historiosophist, philosopher and chronicler. Such “teachings” and “words” were very popular. At that time, the first written code of laws was created. Russian folk culture had all the features of European culture. And subsequently it had practically no difference from Christian folklore.

Religion

Folk religion in Russia had two names in 19th-century church and academic circles. They defined its nature as a synthesis of Christian doctrine and “pagan” beliefs. The first name was “dual faith”, the second was “everyday Orthodoxy”. The first is used in scientific use and in the modern world; it is perceived by scientists formally. In the literal sense, this term should be understood as the union of two faiths into a folk religion. In numerous studies of the beliefs of the Eastern Slavs (as well as Russians), the main interest of ethnographers is directed towards “pagan experiences”, reconstruction of archaic models and interpretation. In the Middle Ages in Rus' and the West there was a gap between the traditional consciousness of many and the book culture of a smaller number of the population. Intellectuals of Russia who had a desire to speak Greek studied it under Prince Yaroslav the Wise: they had their own translators in Kyiv. A connection arose between the Middle Eastern centers of Christians and Russia, and over time, despite any events, it was no longer interrupted.

Meaning

How did the formation of moral values ​​occur? Mass culture is a spiritual product of art that is created in wide circulation. It is designed for a large audience, for a significant number of spectators. Its main advantage is that it is intended not only to entertain a large number of people, but also to enrich their thoughts. The folk tale which is given above is quite relevant in modern society. Today there are few people who are not interested in the spiritual heritage of their ancestors. Folk culture can be recognized by almost everyone of any age and any level of education. Its main feature is simplicity (texts, movements, sounds are easily perceived by people). Culture is for emotional people.

Spiritual development

Any culture is considered in dynamic and static aspects. Of course, spiritual development is no exception. The formation of culture is a rather complex phenomenon. Statics provides for development in space. The discipline explores cultural typology, morphology and structure. This is a synchronous study of the process. Culture is also usually classified into spiritual, physical, material and artistic. Let's take a closer look at spiritual culture. It is based on a creative type of activity, which is expressed in a subjective form and satisfies the secondary needs of society. The composition of spiritual culture includes: religious (beliefs, modern cults), moral, legal (legislation, executive system), political (ideology), pedagogical (ideals of raising children), intellectual (history, philosophy, science) parts. You need to know that the objects of this subject include museums, theaters, libraries, cinemas, educational institutions, concert halls, and courts.

Folk traditional culture originated in ancient times and flourished in the everyday life of the people - breadwinner, plowman, worker. It connected each person with his clan-tribe and with powerful nature.

Folk culture is a spiritual culture. Throughout the history of mankind, it has been the most significant and oldest part of national and world culture, its basic part and is characterized by high value properties. This is nature itself, and the historical memory of the people, and the unbreakable connection of times.

Folk traditional culture is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, rich and vibrant, very broad and deep. On the one hand, it covers many types of folk art - architecture, everyday life, music, choreography, costume, folklore, various crafts and trades. On the other hand, it lives together with the people, rooted deep in hoary antiquity and developing in our days.

From time immemorial, folk traditional culture has determined the norms of behavior in society, modeled the relationships between different generations, and helped shape the values ​​and ideals of the individual and the team as a whole.

Through the work and talent of many generations of our ancestors, a unique folk traditional culture of the Oskol region was created. It is given to us today as a gift from God in a variety of original products of folk craftsmen and artisans, in the amazingly beautiful ornaments of works of decorative and applied art, in the unique archaism of local folklore and choreography, in the wisdom and spirituality of folk holidays and rituals.

This culture has at all times served as a school of moral, patriotic and aesthetic education for the population, and has been a connecting link between the past and the present.

After many years of oblivion, the study of the deep layers of folk traditional culture, the restoration of its age-old socio-cultural functions is necessary for realizing one’s identity, for the revival of the national spiritual mentality of Russians.

For decades, the policy of the Soviet government towards Russian traditional culture was ambivalent.

It is a generally accepted fact that the revolutionary upheaval in Russia after 1917 severely hit folk traditional culture, primarily the Russian village. You can imagine the scale of this tragedy if you realize that by that time Russia was 90% a peasant country. Folk art had spiritual significance as a traditional culture, but in its social composition it was predominantly peasant. It was these ancestral spiritual foundations of the national culture, together with the social and economic structure of the country, that were perceived as especially hostile in the new Soviet conditions and were subject to destruction.

The feeling and understanding of folk culture as a worldview and spiritual culture was eradicated from the consciousness of the people. The terms “spiritual” and “spiritual culture” were completely withdrawn from use for a long time. Under revolutionary slogans, the foundations of culture and the very life of the people were crushed.

Temples were mercilessly destroyed, icons, looms, wood lathes, spinning wheels, printed boards were destroyed - everything that interfered with the new government. Many handicrafts were destroyed, including in Starooskol (see Chapter IV).

Already in 1919, at the First All-Russian Fine Arts Conference of the People's Commissariat for Museum Affairs, in a speech by the head of the Fine Arts Department O.M. Brik, proposals were made about the need to fight the old culture, and arguments were made about the unacceptability in the new conditions of the simultaneous existence of present and past art: “The proletarian revolution requires a radical reorganization of all forms of cultural life. You cannot limit yourself to private reforms or simple popularization of existing principles” (70, pp. 472-473).

The fight against the old, traditional has, in fact, become a program for many years. Tradition was perceived as hostile to everything new, which undoubtedly led to the destruction of folk art as a former, outdated peasant past. The introduction of the new in the fight against the old was carried out in cultural policy at all stages of Soviet history, with only minor changes in content.

Today in our society the conviction is gaining strength that genuine Russian folk traditional culture serves to form national self-awareness, in addition, it teaches tolerance towards other cultures and nations. This factor is especially relevant in modern multinational Russia. At the same time, the traditional culture of the Russian people (as a state-forming ethnic group) remains poorly studied and needs special support.

As noted by Doctor of Art History, Professor M.A. Nekrasova, Rodina - People - Folk - concepts with one root Rod. The folk gives spiritual fulfillment to this indissoluble unity - in Faith, in the religious feeling of Man. It expands this feeling to the consciousness and feeling of the whole earth and life as the highest value, for which all peoples are united in responsibility. Folk art extends the threads of friendship and understanding of one people to another. And this is its great value in modern culture.

Having absorbed two millennia of Christian culture, folk art functions today as a living tradition. All the disastrous costs of Soviet policy in the field of folk culture and its dire consequences currently confront society with the need for state recognition of folk art as spiritual culture, the basic value of the national culture of the Russian people and other peoples of Russia. Folk culture is the most important factor of statehood and requires state solutions to its problems. Scientists take this task beyond the framework of national culture and call it universal, interstate.

Therefore, the problems of folk traditional culture should be reflected in politics, and in art, and in organizational and managerial practice, and in the field of education.

Unfortunately, in modern society, where acquisition and comfort are at the forefront, the laws of consumption dominate to a greater extent, and the desire for entertainment predominates in people's leisure time. People strive to escape from reality, from folk art, which disturbs thought, poses new problems, and makes one think about something.

Often we are faced with the problem of contamination, vulgarization, and mixing of folk traditional culture with manifestations of mass culture. Meanwhile, thanks to living traditions, folk art reproduces in culture those values ​​that connect a person with God and with society. Mass culture, on the contrary, destroys these vital connections.

There are often cases when even cultural workers, sincerely trying to attract more public attention to folk traditional culture, cross the acceptable line, getting carried away by external attractiveness and entertainment.

It has become an indisputable fact today that even school teachers, employees of preschool educational institutions and cultural institutions often confuse a pot with a cast iron pot and do not know what a grip, a chaplya, a steelyard, a makhotka, a makitra and many other items that were so necessary in the past folk life are. It is difficult to answer the questions of what a ground and chicken hut is, why in the Oskol region peasants preferred to grow hemp rather than flax; what is the difference between a spinning wheel and a spinning wheel? why on Friday it was not allowed to spin and weave, etc.

Insufficient knowledge of local characteristics and local specifics of the folk clothing of Stary Oskol sometimes leads to the propaganda of pseudo-Russian style; often the costume of other regions of Russia is passed off as Stary Oskol.

All this cannot but cause great concern for the fate of the younger generation of Russians, in general for the fate of the Russian ethnic group, and requires taking serious measures to change the situation for the better.

In modern society, folk traditional culture lives as a great spiritual, moral and aesthetic force. This fact must not only be taken into account, but also this unique phenomenon must be protected in every possible way, supported and developed as a national spiritual heritage of Russia and the whole world. She, like nature, brings harmony to life, connects generations with the memory of culture and a sense of kinship among all peoples.

About the concept of “traditional culture”

Traditional culture ethnicity is one of the main objects of study of ethnographic science. Moreover, the concept of “culture” in ethnography has a different meaning than in a number of other sciences, where culture is understood as a high level achieved in one or another type of activity. In ordinary consciousness, this word also has an evaluative meaning (“cultured” - “uncultured” person). In ethnography, culture is everything that is created by man, as opposed to what is created by nature. Therefore, culture in ethnography includes verbal communication, tools, organization of economic activities, household items, forms of social organization, ritual practice, features of everyday behavior, etc. and so on.

The term “traditional culture” also requires clarification. It is understood as a set of cultural phenomena characteristic of pre-industrial society, when a subsistence economy dominates, in which production activity is focused on one’s own consumption, and not on the creation of commodity, i.e., products intended for exchange.

Traditional culture was characteristic of the peoples of the world before the industrial revolution that occurred in developed countries in the 18th century. Its result was the use of mechanisms operating on raw energy resources (coal, oil, gas) in the production of products. In this way, the goal of reducing its cost through mass production was achieved, but this factor at the same time contributed to the standardization of the goods produced. Despite their cheapness and practicality, the same types of things began to spread first in industrialized countries, and then throughout the world, losing their original ethnicity and becoming global forms of culture.

High-rise buildings made of brick and concrete with glazed windows and, if necessary, steam heating, a men's suit consisting of a jacket and trousers, a woman's dress, jeans, sausages and beer - just a drop in the ocean of phenomena called industrial, or developed, or urbanized culture, society, a characteristic feature of which is the absence of ethnic specificity. Along with objects of material culture, forms of social relations, state institutions, spiritual culture, etc. began to spread, although to a lesser extent, which also acquired a global character - the monogamous family, parliamentarism, religious tolerance. The symbolism of a handshake, a ring on the ring finger of the right hand, a decorated Christmas tree standing in the house, earrings in the left ear become clear, of course, not throughout the world, but in a significant part of it.

However, the process of replacing traditional forms of culture with the culture of industrial society occurs gradually. The lower the level of technological development of a society, the more traditional features are inherent in its culture. Traditional culture is most fully preserved among the so-called “backward” peoples, leading the most primitive forms of economy - hunters, fishermen and gatherers, primitive farmers and cattle breeders. In general, the preservation of traditional culture is more characteristic of the masses than of the elite of society, and of the rural population rather than the urban population. The peasantry has become the main bearer of those forms of culture that have ethnic overtones since the feudal era.

Russian traditional culture began to be replaced by a global one, mainly from the second half of the 19th century, when, after the abolition of serfdom, a period of rapid industrial development of the country began. Therefore, in relation to the Russian ethnos, the time of existence of its traditional culture should be dated back to the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, since after that it begins to quickly be replaced by the culture of industrial society. It should be noted, however, that by this chronological period many elements of traditional culture were no longer characteristic of the noble upper echelons of society, and to a large extent they were also crowded out from the lives of townspeople. Therefore, the characteristic of Russian traditional culture (and other peoples) is a description of the cultural phenomena of the rural population, mainly the peasant population, which retains the features of traditionalism to the greatest extent. For the Russian ethnic group, this situation is all the more justified because at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. the share of the peasantry in it was more than 90%.

Close to the term “traditional culture” is the term “folk culture”, in which the word “people” is used in the meaning of “working masses”, “people of manual labor”. But while there are many similarities between these terms, there are certain differences. Folk culture includes all its components that function in the people's environment, while some are reproduced in it, others are introduced into it from the outside, although the form of the latter undoubtedly corresponded to one degree or another to the needs of the people's environment. For example, Orthodoxy, literacy, lubok, barrel organ and much more formed an integral part of Russian folk culture, but were introduced into it from the outside. Own forms of folk culture can be attributed to traditional culture, and it is the latter that is the object of study of ethnographic science.

However, there are areas of traditional culture studied by other sciences. First of all, it is a language that is reproduced among the people, but is the object of linguistic research. An independent sphere of scientific research is oral folk art - folklore, initially, however, as is clear from the name itself (obsolete English “study of the people”), identified with ethnography. The study of such forms of traditional culture as musical art, dance, theater is the prerogative of musicology, choreography, and theater studies.

The problem of delimiting the spheres of ethnography and other sciences when studying the traditional culture of an ethnic group in domestic science is solved traditionally. The competence of ethnography usually includes such phenomena of traditional culture as economic activity (and primarily related folk knowledge about the surrounding world), material culture (the main forms of which are represented by housing complexes, clothing, food and utensils), social relations ( the two main institutions of which the Russians had were family and community) and spiritual culture (its main components are life cycle rituals, calendar rituals, archaic beliefs and ideas).

The selection of these aspects due to such a property of culture as systematicity, of course, is conditional: the performance of most ritual actions is impossible without the use of material objects, the rituals themselves can be aimed at success in the economic sphere, and its organization is largely determined by social relations, etc. d.

Finally, in connection with the problem of determining the object sphere of ethnography, we can state the absence of clear boundaries between it and other sciences, which is reflected in the emergence of areas of scientific knowledge located at the intersection of different spheres of scientific knowledge, as evidenced by their names - ethnolinguistics, ethnoecology, ethnopsychology, ethnosociology, etc.; In the field of studying the state of religiosity, a new direction has appeared, its object is a phenomenon covered by the concept of “folk Orthodoxy”.

For students in grades 1-4 of secondary school

Explanatory note

The “Russian Traditional Culture” program is conceived as the information basis for all integrated training courses within the framework of the “Russian Traditional Culture in the Holistic Educational Space of the Pro-Gymnasium” experiment. Students gain knowledge that will become the basis for classes in other subjects (theater arts, visual arts, music, etc.). However, knowledge is not the end in itself of such activities. During conversations between the teacher and students, using various pedagogical technologies, the moral, patriotic education of children is carried out, the formation of their cultural creative potential is carried out on the basis of the cultural heritage of Russia. This is the most important target the entire course.

Educational objectives course "Russian traditional culture":

To give children a general idea of ​​the roots and characteristics of Russian traditional culture and its most important basis - folk art.

To form in children, in the process of studying Russian traditional culture, a value-based attitude towards their Motherland and native nature, towards the people, family and home, towards mother and motherhood, towards learning and the Teacher.

To instill in children, based on the material of Russian traditional culture, an aesthetic attitude towards nature and life, kindness, mercy, compassion, honesty, hard work and other highest spiritual and moral qualities of the individual.

Show the relationship between the spiritual and moral foundations of Russian culture and the cultures of other peoples.

To form in children the need to study, master, preserve and develop the national cultural heritage.

The program is designed for 3 years of study:

1st grade - “Land of my ancestors.” Introduction to Russian culture. Everyday culture of Russia.

2nd grade - “Primordial Rus'”. In the world of Slavic myths and fairy tales.

3rd grade - “In Holy Rus'”. Culture of Orthodox Russia.

Grade 4 - “Russian traditional artistic culture.”

Classes are conducted in a variety of forms (conversations, games, theatrical performances, excursions, etc.). On them, the facts of the history of Russian culture become a reason for discussing the spiritual and moral problems of modern life.

The lessons are enriched with visual images: slides, illustrations, diagrams, films and cartoons, and fragments of educational programs are widely used. Many classes take place against the backdrop of folk and classical music. Each lesson includes creative cognitive tasks, for example, writing fairy tales, poems, etc.

What is new in the content of the subject “Russian Traditional Culture” is the reliance on archetypal images of Russian traditional art, which, in our opinion, makes it easier for younger schoolchildren to learn the material. Images of nature and natural elements are a guide for children into the diverse and complex world of artistic creativity. For example, in the first grade we admire the fire in the stove and fantasize, in the second we learn about its magical properties in Russian fairy tales and myths. In the third and fourth grades, while continuing to introduce children to the archetypal images of Russian art, we place emphasis on the spiritual and moral values ​​of traditional Russian culture, as well as on “universal” spiritual and moral values:

Value-based attitude towards mother.

The value of family and traditional family relationships.

The value of the native land, the Motherland.

The value of hard work and hard work.

The value of a healthy lifestyle.

The value of knowledge and skills.

The universal nature of archetype images allows us to build a dialectic of national and multinational cultural space in the educational system. Universal human spiritual and moral values, embodied in the archetypal images of a mother, hero, baby, etc., can be transferred to the internal plane of a person’s activity and enter into the system of his values ​​and life meanings.

Introduction

Chapter I. Theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of national identity 21

1. The problem of national identity in the social thought of Russia 21

2. The formation of the concept of “national identity”, “ethnic identity” in modern domestic science 36.

Chapter II. Main characteristics of traditional culture 57

1. Ethnic culture and its functions. 57

2. On the concepts of “tradition” and “traditional culture” in the cultural aspect 63

3. Traditional culture in modern sociocultural space 71

Chapter III. Culturological potential of traditional culture in the educational space, 91

1. Use of elements of traditional culture in the education system 91

2. Introducing to traditional culture in a modern city 103

3. Mastering the symbolic language of folk culture in the process of teaching crafts 116

Conclusion 140

Reviews of teacher training courses

“The traditional world of the Russian people” 143

References 147

Introduction to the work

The relevance of research. At the turn of the 20th - 21st centuries, Russian society experienced global changes associated with the collapse of the USSR. The crisis of national identity, the loss of value orientations among many Russian citizens who have historically identified themselves with the state, complicate the transformations that have begun in the country. The most important task of today is the preservation of the national unity of Russia, the spiritual improvement of society, which is impossible without nurturing national self-awareness. A unique and organic resource in solving this problem is folk traditional culture, which contains ideas and meanings, sign systems that perform the functions of social orientation, ensure the consolidation of society and help restore cultural continuity and ethnic identity.

In the modern world, a person is the bearer of a whole set of identities -. cultural, ethnic, professional, religious, etc. But in the personality structure, ethnic identity is dominant, especially in unstable periods of crisis. It is determined by the basic psychological needs of the individual: for safety and protection; belonging to society, to a group; originality and uniqueness of one’s “I” and self-confidence. The stability of the national community depends on the optimal forms of preserving traditions.

Research by domestic and foreign sociologists and ethnopsychologists indicates: “de-ethnicization”, “ethnic erosion” lead to the marginalization of the individual and society as a whole, serve as a breeding ground for the manifestation of extremism and are one of the underlying causes of interethnic tensions; personal and group positive ethnic identity are a condition for tolerance; installed

preserving a positive ethnic identity is a socio-psychological mechanism for preserving the ethnic culture itself as a whole.

Meanwhile, familiarization with traditional values ​​in ethnic groups, especially in large cities, is objectively difficult. In this regard, it is relevant to develop effective mechanisms for transmitting the positive values ​​of traditional culture into the educational and sociocultural space of a modern metropolis based on using the potential of ethnographic and local history museums - the main custodians of ethnic standards of traditional culture. The revival of traditional folk artistic culture that has begun in the regions of Russia, contributing to the education of national self-awareness, is considered today as state policy, as evidenced by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On measures of state support for folk artistic crafts and crafts” dated October 7, 1994.

A significant number of works are devoted to the study of Russian self-awareness, the authors of which examined this phenomenon from different positions.

However, a theory has not yet been clearly formulated to explain the structure and functioning of this most important element of the ethnic group; moreover, there is not even a consensus on the content included in the concept of national identity.

The concept of national self-awareness as an individual’s awareness of belonging to a particular nation as a socio-economic and political community is widespread in Russian science 1 . But it is obvious that national identity has a more complex multi-level structure, including ethnic and historical identity, historical memory, ethnocultural consciousness, its component is the national idea, national mentality, and

1 Platonov Yu.P. Ethnic psychology. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2001. P. 305.

it coexists with other manifestations of self-awareness: class, confessional, etc.

There is no doubt that problems of national identity have acquired special significance for Russia. The ethnic diversity of the country and its vast spaces, the peculiarities of the communal structure of social life, have increased the importance of supra-ethnic factors of consolidation - the state and religion. Due to these historical circumstances, national self-awareness was a factor linking the nation into an entire spiritual and sociocultural space.

It is also necessary to take into account that the origins of Russia's multinationality are rooted not in its original multiethnicity, but in the unique policy of gathering lands and peoples into a single nation, which was carried out by the Russian state from the second half of the 16th century. and did not take place on the principle of ethnic purity, but on territorial, multinational, economic, and cultural unity. This is reflected in word usage: “the word “Russian” is not a synonym for the word “Russian”, but means a citizen of the state of Russia” 2. Russians are the majority ethnic group (81.5%, 73.6% Orthodox), the numerically non-dominant indigenous peoples of Russia are historically settled on lands that make up half of its territory. This objectively established circumstance determined the multiethnic policy of the state and the multicultural consciousness of our multinational peoples, who find mutual understanding through the Russian language as the state language of interethnic and interpersonal communication.

The Russian people have the historical mission of not only a collector, but also a guardian of annexed territories and ethnic groups. Therefore, when considering the national identity of Russians, it is necessary to remember the ancient traditions of statehood of the Russian people. This is exactly what you can do

2 Stepanov Yu.S. Constants. Dictionary of Russian culture. M., 1997. P. 509.

explain the “two-level” nature of his consciousness: ethnic self-awareness, formed in traditional culture and supported by community relations mainly in the rural environment, and national self-awareness itself, formed on the basis of state interests.

The etatization of the consciousness of Russians at the beginning of the 20th century. was noted by Eurasians, and N. Trubetskoy described the type of representative of the Eurasian civilization as traditionally oriented, aware of the need to submit to the state. Identification with his authority was a kind of compensation for the spatial lostness of Russian people. The state, especially in the early stages of the formation of the nation, was the only factor in the organization of this space and the semantic unification of a vast territory into a single whole (along with Orthodoxy, which formed a value-based, spiritual unity). The process of collecting Russian lands was not violent, leaving the right to cultural identity to those ethnic groups that were included in the space of Russian statehood. Because of this, the state was perceived as a guarantor of the preservation of Russian ethnic groups from external expansion. The Russian state, which structured this civilization, was initially multi-ethnic. The Russian people were indifferent to the national question (“If only the person was good!”), therefore traditional Russian politics was ethnically preserving. For the famous writers, commanders and statesmen who entered the history of Russia, who had admixtures of Scottish, German and other blood, there was no problem of nationality. It is significant, for example, that in the 17th century the Russian aristocracy consisted of 156 families of Tatar origin, 156 families of Rurikovich, 223 families of Polish-Lithuanian origin.

3 Trubetskoy N.S. We and others // Russia between Europe and Asia: Eurasian temptation. Anthology. M.: Nauka, 1993. pp. 77-129.

origin, etc. The Russian state preached a supra-ethnic idea and was ruled by Russians, Poles, Germans, and Scots, mixed with Tatars and Cumans. Emperor Nicholas I emphasized that he did not divide his subjects into Russians, Jews and Germans, but divided them into faithful and infidel 4 .

The USSR was also a geopolitical reality and a sociocultural community where a person, be he Russian or Tatar, Christian or Muslim, identified himself with the state. The concept of “Soviet” in a foreign passport also had a general civilian meaning. Russian and Yakut, Ossetian and Azerbaijani, Tatar and Ingush were presented as citizens of the Union, maintaining their national identity. Similar processes are now taking place in the European Union (EU), where the concept of “European” is being developed.

After the collapse of the USSR, there was a sharp break with the accumulated historical experience, the Soviet system of values, which in a certain way held together all Soviet people. However, studies conducted in the early 1990s still show the high importance of relationships with work colleagues, concern for the affairs of the team, etc. It turned out that in the presence of such conditions, a person retains and strengthens his positive attitude toward constructive activity. It is noted that in the future, collectivist attitudes can even be strengthened, since in the structure of self-awareness they also perform compensatory functions, play the role of adaptive psychological defense, helping to overcome the internal discomfort of the individual generated by today’s crisis of self-awareness in Russian society.

4 Minyushev F.I. Social anthropology. M., 1997. P. 38.

5 Leontyeva V.N., Sumyatin V.N. From pseudo-collectivism to real adaptive functions // Socis. 1992.
№6.

Similar conclusions are shown by research conducted by NIIKSI within the framework of the topic “Culture and Market Relations” 6 . They note a clearly expressed focus among the younger generation on collectivism (a good team is worth more than a salary), on the state as a guarantor of personal well-being and social security.

A similar socio-ethnographic study was conducted in 1997-98. among the Russians of the Saratov and Vladimir regions and the Black Sea Circassians (Lazarevsky district of Sochi). The result was, in the overwhelming majority of cases, a high appreciation of traditional heritage (holidays, customs, interpersonal relationships) among the middle and older generations, as well as the importance of its knowledge and preservation. In the “state”-“nation” coordinate system, the priority objects of identification were: 1) family (parents, children, home), 2) state, 3) profession, 4) people, nation.

The national idea is not a special subject of our research, but characterizes the deep foundations of national self-awareness and is an important component of it, therefore the dissertation author will briefly outline the views of our compatriots on this phenomenon, which has not yet received sufficient scientific understanding.

The national idea occupied the minds of outstanding philosophers, writers, social scientists of the 19th century - P.Ya. Chaadaeva, Vl. S. Solovyova, F.M. Dostoevsky, G.P. Fedotova, N.A. Berdyaeva, I.A. Ilyin, Eurasians and many contemporaries. Some modern authors put forward national identity and the national idea as the main characteristic of a nation 8 . The national idea is recognized as special and specifically

6 Markov A.P. Domestic culture as a subject of cultural studies. St. Petersburg, 1996. P. 45.

7 Preliminary results of the work on the questionnaire “self-assessment by the ethnic group of the prospects of forms of traditional
culture." Materials of the seminar “Study of national identity in the ethnographic museum.” St. Petersburg,
1998.

8 Tishkov V.A. What is Russia (prospects for nation-building) // Questions of Philosophy. 1995. No. 2. S.
3-17.

Russian form of national identity, performing the functions of meaning formation, value orientation and social consolidation 9. F.M. Dostoevsky noted the consolidating and even ethnic-forming role of the national idea. Vl. Solovyov considered the national idea to be the most important form of people’s understanding of their cultural identity and spiritual mission, the depths and prospects of social development, a form of unity of historical memory and image of the future. Therefore, he considered the national idea as a necessary component of the spiritual life of society, its self-awareness and development (as “the desire of the people to understand about themselves what God thinks about them in eternity” 10). The basis of the national idea, according to I.A. Ilyin, lie such values ​​as “love for the historical appearance and creative act of his people”, “faith in his spiritual instinctive power, his spiritual calling” (“the will for the creative flourishing of my people - in earthly affairs and heavenly achievements”) 11.

The meaning of the national idea is to encourage the will of the people to national unity, based on national identity, in order to achieve goals determined by national interests 12. The dissertation author believes that this formulation best meets today's expectations of society and reveals the essence of this phenomenon more than others: the national idea is a variable concept, a function of historical time. Its goals may change depending on the demographic, spiritual, environmental and political situations experienced by a nation at various stages of its development. However, despite this variability, national identity remains fundamental to the national idea, and is less subject to the tests of time.

9 Russia in search of identity // Sociological studies. 1992. No. 11.

10 Soloviev B.S. Russian idea // Russian idea. M., 1992. P. 187.

11 Ilyin I.A. For national Russia // Word. 1991. No. 4.

12 Political science: A brief encyclopedic dictionary-reference book. M., 1997.

Therefore, the most important prerequisite for overcoming the spiritual crisis of Russian society is the formation in the public consciousness of a national idea that meets the challenges of the time, and the education of the national self-awareness of Russian citizens on the basis of the traditional values ​​of the Russian ethnic group.

The factor that consolidates a nation is the mentality of the people. Russian scientists actively became involved in the study of socio-psychological aspects of Russian history in the 1990s. Understanding the mentality of the Russian ethnic group helps explain the sociocultural processes and phenomena of social life taking place today. A deep philosophical and sociological definition of this phenomenon was made by P. Sorokin 13 . The scientist defined its essence with the category “worldview dominant” of culture. According to him, expressing socio-natural specificity, the mentality is formed at an unconscious level: in the process of identification with an ethnic community, religion, landscape, and most clearly manifests itself in the typical features of comprehension of the world, in the “archetypes” of the collective unconscious, in the way of life, traditions and legends in form of behavior and expression of emotions, in the value system, perceptions of space and time.

The author believes that the formation of the mentality of the Russian ethnos and the definition of its value guidelines began after receiving baptism under Prince Vladimir, and its subsequent formation took place under the influence of Orthodox ethics, which determined its features: asceticism and the perception of spiritual freedom as independence from the world of the material, sensual, and also the moral dominant of behavior, which is the main value of the Orthodox worldview. They also determined the specifics of Russian culture as a whole. Another factor was the powerful impact of natural and climatic conditions. With endless

13 Sorokin P.A. Human. Civilization. Society. M., 1992. P. 438.

Space is associated in philosophical science with an essential feature of the national mentality - not being rooted in the present and constantly looking to the past or future. Summarizing the thoughts of F. M. Dostoevsky, Vl. Solovyova, N.A. Berdyaeva, I.A. Ilyin concluded that the dominance in the Russian consciousness of the values ​​of the ideal world and the psychological focus on subjective states make Russian culture more holistic (totalitarian) and at the same time intolerant of other positions, values, worldviews (destruction of dissent, intolerance of pochvenniks and Westerners, democrats and communists, etc. .d.). F.M. Dostoevsky and I.A. Ilyin noted that political freedoms and human rights do not represent absolute value in the public consciousness. Public opinion polls in 2001-2002. also showed that the attitudes of individualism and democracy do not dominate among the majority of Russians. Over half of Russian respondents believe that the authorities should govern the country with justice, and not with the letter of the law, i.e. admits that justice" in certain situations may not fully comply with the law. The ideas about the ideal government also coincide - it should take care of the people (38%), be fair (25%) and strong (21%).

The dominance of social orientations over individual-personal ones in the public consciousness is recognized as one of the specific features of the mentality, the origins of which are rooted in the stable orientations of the Russian person towards the whole, the extrapersonal: the world of the community, conciliarity (A.I. Herzen, A. Kuraev, etc.). Some modern researchers (and the dissertation author shares their opinion) believe that it is the communal nature of existence that blocks not only individual manifestations, but also the consolidation of large social groups (parties, associations, movements) that form the basis of Western-style civil society. The research carried out by the dissertation student showed that, despite

a break with the accumulated historical experience and the Soviet system of values, national stereotypes of relationships and value orientations of the ethnic group are preserved in the mass consciousness 14 .

The degree of scientific development of the problem. A significant number of works are devoted to the study of national identity. Their authors examined this phenomenon from different positions, but did not explore the practical mechanisms influencing its formation. It should be noted that a theory has not yet been formulated to explain the structure and functioning of this most important element of the ethnic group; moreover, there is no consensus on the content included in this concept.

The term “national identity” (meaning patriotism, nationality, “Russianness”) began to be used in Russian literature in the 30-40s. XIX century It was used in his works by V.G. Belinsky, Vl. Soloviev, D.K. Ushinsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.I. Berdyaev, I.A. Ilyin, as well as political leaders (V.I. Lenin, I.V. Stalin) and public figures. However, only since the 20s. The 20th century began a theoretical understanding of this problem in the context of the theory of ethnos (S.M. Shirokogorov, 1923; P.I. Kushner, 1947, 1954; V.I. Kozlov, 1967; B.F. Porshnev, 1973; Yu.V. Bromley, 1983, 1987; N.N. Cheboksarov, 1972; L.N. Gumilev, 1990, 1992, 1994, etc.) A feature of the Soviet theory of ethnos is the problem of ethno-differentiating characteristics, which are the basis of national (ethnic) self-determination.

Since the 1970s. ethnic self-awareness on the basis of empirical research is actively studied by domestic ethnosociologists (L.M. Drobizheva; A.A. Susokolov, 1984; E.M. Galkina, 1993; Z.V. Sikevich, 1996; E.I. Shlyagina, etc.) .

Since the mid-1980s. in domestic psychology begins

Bashkirova E. Paternalists and marketers: what society looks like from the point of view of sociology / E. Bashkirova // Izvestia. - 2001. -September 25 - With. 4.

the ethnopsychological direction of research will intensify, in which first ethnic self-awareness, and later ethnic identity become the central objects of study (A.G. Asmolov; I.B. Andrushchak; L.N. Lebedeva, 1993; V.I. Levkovich, Pankova, 1985; Leontyev, 1983; L.I. Naumenko, 1992; V.N. Pavlenko, G.U. Soldatova, 1994; Yu.V. Platonov, L.G. Pochebut, 1993; S.V. Ryzhova, 1995; O. V. Chernova, Enikopolov, 1993; Z.V. Sikevich, 2001; T.G. Stefanenko, 2002; V.Yu. Khotinets, 2002, etc.). The result of these studies is a series of collections and scientific articles published under the editorship of L.M. Drobizheva in 1990-1996.

In the sector of socio-psychological problems of national relations of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for a number of years, ethnic self-awareness continues to be the object of large-scale empirical research at the intersection of ethnosociology, political science and social psychology (V.A. Tishkov, E.H. Aleksandrenkov, I.Yu. Zarinov, I.V. Harutyunyan). The result was new approaches to explaining the nature and essence of ethnicity, ethnic identity, ethnic conflicts, etc.

In the 1990s, interest in the socio-psychological aspects of Russian history was awakened (I.M. Abdulgafarova, T.G. Batasov, A.O. Boronoev, A.I. Smirnova, A.V. Buganov, M.M. Gromyko , I.G. Dubov, K. Kasyanova, V.V. Kolesov, A.P. Markov, S.A. Nikolsky, K.B. Sokolov, etc.), and also fundamental general humanitarian and philosophical works on the problems of methodology appear and technologies for the formation of personality as a subject of culture (S.N. Ikonnikova, M.S. Kagan, A.S. Karmin, A.P. Markov, E.V. Sokolov, V.A. Schuchenko, V.A. Yadov and etc.).

In the 1990s, a number of dissertations close to the topic of our research were defended. Their authors consider socio-psychological and

15 In recent years, the concepts of “ethnic identity” and “ethnicity”, borrowed from foreign socio-cultural anthropology, have been widely used in the domestic scientific literature. From a broad interdisciplinary perspective, the author considers their use legitimate in the sense of “national (ethnic) self-determination.” In this work they will be used as identical.

ethnic aspects of national identity and factors influencing its formation: on the example of the Kazakh ethnic group Shalabaeva G.K. "National culture as a phenomenon of national consciousness and self-awareness." M., 1996; Ovlakushev E. (Turkmenistan) “Formation of national identity: social and philosophical aspect.” M., 1993; Danzaev SM. (Buryatia) “National self-identification: state, trends and ways of humanization.” M., 1992; Mukhamedberdiev O.B. "National identity of the peoples of Central Asia at the present stage of their development." M., 1992; Ataev K.K. "Development of national self-awareness of the Turkmen people." M., 1992; Abdirazzakov A.A. "National spiritual values ​​and their place in the self-consciousness of the nation." Tashkent, 1995; Vaterin A.S. “Main trends and stages of development of Russian national identity in the 19th-20th centuries.” Ekaterinburg, 1993; Savchenko O.A. “Humanitarian and cultural aspects of the formation of Russian national identity (first half of the 19th century).” St. Petersburg: GUK, 1997.

In the 1990s. In connection with the growth of national self-awareness of ethnic groups in the post-Soviet space, interest in Russian traditional culture and a rethinking of this heritage have intensified. There are a number of cultural studies devoted to folk culture and modern approaches to its interpretation (Mikhailova N.G., 2002; Nagornaya O.V., 2001), the objective world of traditional culture in modern conditions (Baldina O., 2001), consideration of folk culture as one of the forms of folklore (). The role of traditions in new social conditions is considered by A.A. Susokolov (1994), defended his thesis “Cultural and historical destinies of folk crafts” (Grigorieva E.I., St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts, 1999), published fundamental works: “Russian traditional costume” (1998), “Russian holiday” (2001 G.),

“Encyclopedia of life of Russian peasants” in 2 vols. (2003-2004), etc., adapted to the interests of the general public.

During these same years, the formation of museum pedagogical science took place, revealing the untapped possibilities of museums in working with children's audiences, including in the direction of forming national identity (E.G. Artemov, E.G. Vanslova, E.N. Mastenitsa, B. A. Stolyarov, N.V. Reva, L.M. Shlyakhtina, M.V. Yukhnevich).

In this work, the materials of the Second Russian Conference “Traditions and Customs of the Peoples of Russia” 16 (May 16-18, 2000, St. Petersburg) are of great interest. At the same time, numerous studies of traditional culture were not considered as a source of the formation of national identity.

Object of study: traditional Russian culture in the modern sociocultural space of Russia.

Item: formation of national self-awareness of the younger generation in the process of mastering Russian traditional culture.

Purpose of the study: analysis of Russian traditional culture as the basis for the formation of national identity of the younger generation. Such goal setting required the implementation of a number of tasks:

analyze the problem of national identity in Russian social thought;

reveal the formation of the concepts of “national identity” and “ethnic identity” in modern Russian science;

consider the functions of ethnic culture;

substantiate the meaning of the concepts “tradition” and “traditional culture” in the cultural aspect;

to identify the features of the existence of Russian traditional culture in the modern sociocultural space;

to develop forms and methods of introducing the younger generation to traditional culture in a modern metropolis;

identify the features of the symbolic language of Russian traditional culture in the process of teaching crafts.

Methodology and research methods. Methodological basis
is an interdisciplinary approach that is based on
use of domestic ethnological concepts, data

sociological and art studies, achievements of Russian philosophical and pedagogical thought; on the understanding of national identity as the most important component of the spiritual life of the individual and the state; on the idea of ​​the enduring value of traditional culture in a renewing world; on the pedagogical principle of age stratification, including three stages (fairytale-mythological - 5-10 years, moral-ethical - 11-15 years, technotronic-scientistic - 15-17 years);

Data from scientific disciplines are used in the work to create a concept of traditional culture based on the principles of a systems approach as the basis for nurturing the national identity of the younger generation. The theoretical ideas of the dissertation are the basis author's methodology mastering traditional culture and craft traditions (sculpting and painting clay toys, wood painting, beadwork, weaving, pottery, weaving from wicker, birch bark and wool, design

dolls, etc.) The methodology was built taking into account the gradual movement from figurative and emotional perception during childhood (folklore, folk games, theatrical excursions, practical crafts, etc.) to the development of the meanings and values ​​of traditional culture in middle and high school school age.

The study is based on a complex of empirical methods: observation of the work of visitors to the “School of Crafts”, students of experimental secondary schools; surveys; interviewing; analysis of the sociological portrait of those interested in the activities of the “School of Crafts” and its active participants.

Research hypothesis. The development of traditional heritage in the process of sociocultural creativity, subject to scientifically based guidance, will contribute to the formation of national self-awareness of the younger generation.

Scientific novelty of the research

A theoretical and methodological concept for implementation has been developed
potential of traditional culture in the formation of national
self-awareness of the younger generation;

The unique possibilities of traditional Russian culture are revealed
as an organic basis in the formation of national identity;

the basic principles of training programs have been developed to promote the preservation of folk traditions (following the canon, which makes each type of folk art in artistic crafts unique; using improvisation and variability within the canon;

innovative experience of transforming tradition (while preserving technique and technology) in original designs; production of handicrafts based on museum samples;

specific forms and methods of introducing the young generation of a modern metropolis to traditional culture have been identified;

the role of craft tradition as a factor in personal inculturation is substantiated;

the connection between positive national-cultural identity and tolerance was confirmed using materials from sociological research;

A program for the revival of traditional
crafts on the basis of the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St.
Petersburg.

The following provisions are submitted for defense:

1. Formation of the national self-awareness of the Russian people on
the modern historical stage is determined by objective
needs related to the preservation of a single cultural and
spiritual space, the integrity of Russia as a state;

2. Plays an important role in the formation of national identity
self-identification based on ethnocultural components;

3. For the effective formation of national identity
it is necessary to include the individual in an active sociocultural
activities for the development of traditional heritage;

4. Traditional culture as a spiritual and material basis

national identity is updated in the process of mastering folk crafts in unity with the symbolic language of national culture.

5. Innovative museum technologies (folklore and theatrical excursions, folk games, calendar holidays in interactive

space, crafts, etc.) strengthen the communicative functions of the museum and contribute to the inclusion of ethnographic monuments as a living reality in the cultural space of the metropolis.

6. Integration of traditional culture (based on craft traditions) into the regional educational system will be a potentially significant component in nurturing the national identity of the younger generation.

7. The Russian Ethnographic Museum and the “School of Crafts” are
cultural, educational and methodological center of modern
sociocultural space of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region,
whose influence is carried out through various

institutional forms (educational institutions, museums, internships, scientific and practical conferences, consultations, etc.).

Scientific and practical significance of the study. The dissertation author developed and implemented into the practice of the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg a program for teaching the crafts of the Russian people (1994-2004); on traditional Russian culture, intended for advanced training courses for teachers of educational institutions, students of pedagogical colleges, university students, methodologists of Children's Art Centers and other categories of users. The experience of the “School of Crafts” has become widespread in the teaching practice of a number of schools in St. Petersburg, schools and kindergartens in the Leningrad region, and in advanced training courses in LOIR (1994-2000). The results of the study can be used when teaching general courses in cultural studies, to improve the teaching and educational process, in accordance with the concept of the national-regional component in the teacher education system.

Approbation of research results. Basic provisions
dissertations are presented in 11 publications and conference reports:
Second Russian conference with international participation “Traditions and
customs of the peoples of Russia" (St. Petersburg, 2000); International conference
“Museums of Eastern Europe in the space of interaction (St. Petersburg, 2000).;
International scientific conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary

Russian Ethnographic Museum (St. Petersburg - Chisinau, 2002); First St. Petersburg ethnographic readings (St. Petersburg, 2002); IX All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference on Museum Pedagogy “Interactivity in the Museum” (St. Petersburg, 2002); International conference “Modern problems of intercultural communications” (St. Petersburg, 2003).

Dissertation structure includes an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

The problem of national identity in Russian social thought

The national identity of the Russian people goes back centuries, since the terms Russian land, Rus', Rusyns are found in all known chronicles of the 11th-12th centuries. (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, etc.) and even earlier, in the 912 agreement between Prince Oleg and Byzantium, where the Russian land is contrasted with the “Greek” land17. The term “Russian land”, “Rus” according to the judgments of V.O. Klyuchevsky designated the entire space of state territory, which was owned by Rus', headed by the Prince of Kyiv, but not by a separate people. (In addition to the Slavic peoples, it also included lands inhabited by other tribes - Chud, Merya, Ves, Muroma, Cheremis, Mordovians, Perm, Pechora, Yam, Lithuania, Zemigola, Kors, Narosa, Lib)18.

Among the surviving chronicle heritage, a special place is occupied by the “Sermon on Law and Grace” (c. 1037-1050) by Metropolitan Hilarion. In the beginning, the author traces the course of universal history, gives an explanation of the causes and driving forces of events.

The second part examines national history as an offshoot of the world process, expresses a deeply patriotic thought about the great destiny of its people, their right and ability to create great achievements. This part is devoted to the spread of Christianity in Rus'. The “idolatrous darkness” is replaced by “goodness” - “fill the whole earth with grace and truth, and faith in all languages ​​will extend to our Russian language.” God did not bypass Rus', “brought her to true reason.” The third part of the word contains praise for Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich and “the entire family of ancestors”19.

Having played a positive role in the unification of the Russian people, Christianity in Russia, established in the form of Orthodoxy, determined a special value orientation of man, different from the West. Since the times of Kievan Rus, Russian Orthodoxy has affirmed the special importance of the spiritual transformation of a person, stimulated the desire for self-improvement, and most importantly, was the basis for self-identification of a Russian person with his community (Christian - peasant - Orthodox).

The process of Christianization in Rus' took place during a difficult period of division of churches into eastern (Orthodox) and western (Catholic) branches, which ended at the beginning of the 13th century, the invasion of nomadic Mongol tribes, attacks by Swedish and German crusaders, princely civil strife, church unrest and the Golden Horde yoke. Only by the 15th century, largely thanks to Sergius of Radonezh and other ascetics, animated by the idea of ​​serving one’s neighbor, did the moral influence of Orthodoxy on his contemporaries increase20.

The preaching of mercy occupied a special place in the system of Christian views. For centuries, church pastors have instilled in their flocks compassion for the suffering, the poor, the poor, the sick, the elderly, that is, for the outcasts of society. Gradually in the XIV-XV centuries. developed its own special ideal of Russian piety and holiness. His distinctive feature was following Christ in selfless service to people, the desire to take care of others, mercy and sympathy for the suffering (an example is monastic and government charity), preaching asceticism.

Sergius of Radonezh laid the foundation for Moscow piety and spirituality. He made attempts to implement the principles of equality, compulsory labor, and moral improvement of monks. During the XIV-XV centuries. There were disputes between non-covetous people - the apologist Nil Sorsky (elder of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery) with the Josephites - ideologist Joseph Volotsky (abbot of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery) - about the essence of non-covetousness as a direction of church thought.

The disagreements between the two church movements boiled down to opposition: “conquering the world along the paths of external work in it or overcoming the world through the transformation and education of a new person, through the formation of a new personality.” From the point of view of the development of spiritual principles, the movement of Nil Sorsky had a greater influence, since it was in it that the “process of spiritual and moral formation of the Christian personality” was embodied in Rus'.

At the beginning of the 16th century. The idea of ​​Moscow as the Third Rome, closely related to the version of the origin of the Moscow Grand Dukes from the Roman emperors, was formed. This idea was outlined by the abbot of the Pskov Eliazar Monastery Philotheus in his letters to Grand Duke Vasily III in 1523-1524. Thus, the “Russian idea” with its messianism began to take shape.

Ethnic culture and its functions

In this paragraph, among the numerous definitions and interpretations of the concept of “culture,” the author highlights its ethnic function in accordance with the goals of this study.

This function is performed by a set of ethno-differentiating and ethno-integrating properties of culture. (Of course, the latter are closely related to its other functions - instrumental, life-supporting, socionormative, cognitive, significative and communicative)84.

Each culture is the result of the activities of an ethnos or ethnic community. The development and functioning of culture represents a special way of life of an ethnos and therefore expresses the specificity of the life of an ethnos, its special way of perceiving the world in myths, religious beliefs and value orientations that give meaning to human existence.

Currently, it is almost impossible to find a single ethnic community that has not been influenced by other peoples. In the context of globalization in the modern world, interest in the cultural identity of ethnic groups is intensifying and there is a growth in national self-awareness.

Each culture most clearly reveals its essence on the border of cultural worlds. Thus, ethnic identity is more strongly expressed among people living in a foreign ethnic environment, and the idea of ​​other groups is formed more quickly among representatives of an ethnic minority. In the dialogue of cultures, an exchange of values ​​occurs and each culture, in comparison with the other, acquires its own individuality and realizes what distinguishes it from others. But an equal dialogue presupposes, as A.P. writes. Markov, “self-identity; authenticity of interacting cultures.” In the “existential”, empirical sense, authentic culture is a genuine culture, not alienated from its history, uniting its past and future with the present, reflecting and maximally revealing the nature of national character and psychology.

At the level of self-awareness, authenticity is achieved by understanding one’s dissimilarity by generating ideas, symbols and images that correspond to the internal essence of the culture of each ethnic group and contribute to the consolidation and identity of individuals, social and ethnic groups and ultimately ensuring the national and cultural solidarity of society.

When speaking about ethnic culture, the dissertation author means the culture of a specific ethnic group (in this case, Russian), and not the culture of the nation as a whole. The latter includes not only ethnic, but also interethnic and other ethnic elements. Ethnic culture is considered by the author as a value-selected and organized life and social experience of an ethnos.

Against the background of existing definitions of culture, the dissertation author finds it most interesting to consider culture as a whole “... as a kind of immune matrix containing genetic information that ensures self-identity and integrity of society, allows a person to identify himself with a certain system of values ​​and at the same time recognize the image and elements of other cultures.” 86.

By traditional values ​​we mean categories that reflect phenomena and objects of ethnocultural reality, the meaning of which was formed in a traditional (pre-industrial) society. In the work, the author is based on the thesis that tradition is a cultural code that determines the evolution of one or another category of culture and distinguishes from all functions of culture the significative (symbolic) and communicative ones, ensuring the transmission of ethnocultural information in a diachronic and synchronous section.

Using elements of traditional culture in the education system

Currently, the Russian Federation has developed a “National Doctrine of Education”. Among the main tasks it names support for the ethnic and national-cultural identity of the peoples of Russia.

In modern domestic science, education is considered as a historical and cultural phenomenon, a unique supra-subject value-orientation system of knowledge that shapes personality. In this context, education is “a harmony of originality and universality, it is an active correspondence to one’s nature, national-cultural identity and at the same time openness to the other, the universal”136. This approach allows us to interpret education as “a specialized way of transmitting culture and mastering cultural experience, as well as a component of socialization, characterized by the acquisition of cultural competence”137. Thus, in modern science the formation of personality is considered as a holistic process. In the National Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation (September 9, 2000), one of the main points of threat to the constitutional rights of freedom of man and citizen in the field of spiritual life is called “... devaluation of spiritual values, propaganda of mass culture models based on the cult of violence, on spiritual and moral values ​​that contradict the values ​​accepted in Russian society...” The main directions of ensuring information security of the Russian Federation in the sphere of spiritual life are: “the development of civilized forms and methods of public control over the formation of spiritual values ​​in society that meet the national interests of the country, the education of patriotism and civil responsibility for its fate...” In this regard, the education system is designed to ensure the authenticity of education to the needs of society, that is, to create conditions for the formation and dissemination of those value guidelines that are preferable both for the individual and for society as a whole. Thus, education should be aimed at solving national problems and, first of all, nurturing the national self-awareness of the citizens of their country.

However, two alarming trends have emerged in Russian educational policy in recent years. Thus, attempts are being made to reorient educational policy towards the liberal values ​​of the Western world, the so-called “Westernization” of the educational process. It is aimed at “Americanizing” the mass consciousness of Russians with the aim of adapting it to market economic models. The values ​​of the Western world are identified with universal human values.

Another dangerous trend is the desire of the ruling regional elites to create a “national entity” that is emphatically distanced from everything “Russian,” while forgetting that during the Soviet period, Russian culture served as a translator of world culture for the majority of peoples inhabiting the USSR, and the Russian language is still language of international communication. Naturally, any nation on the threshold of its formation is tempted to develop at the expense of other peoples and ethnic groups. At the same time, it is often forgotten that the focus on ethnicism in education, the desire to protect one’s people from erosion by fencing off from other cultures does not contribute to progress, but pushes the ethnic group out of the general civilized process. Unfortunately, the formation of “national education” in some subjects of the Russian Federation, which infringes on the national dignity of the Russian population, does not avoid such temptations. Today, the process of national revival of many peoples, both in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space, is developing in extremely contradictory forms, sometimes offensively and even aggressively towards Russians. It must be remembered that in the current system of federal relations, Russians, who remain the most numerous people of Russia (82%), do not have their own statehood, different from the all-Russian one. This fact in modern conditions introduces an objective contradiction into the state structure of Russia as a Federation and negatively affects the national well-being of Russians. (According to the results of a Gallup study, in the 1990s the self-esteem of Russians decreased significantly and today we occupy one of the last places on the “scale of patriotism” out of more than forty countries surveyed.) Therefore, at present, the central issue of state policy is the “Russian problem " To solve it, it is necessary to implement a set of practical measures designed to provide the Russian people with their geostrategic role in uniting Russia as a multi-ethnic community.