8—A Journey Through Russian Culture at Peking University

Author: Wen Chi, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: Russian culture is an important part of world culture, standing out in the global cultural landscape with its unique spiritual essence and aesthetic characteristics. The features of Russian culture are diverse, but we can summarize its overall characteristics in a few sentences: "late start, rapid progress, distinct features, and high level." It is well-known that the history of Russian national culture is relatively short, not to mention compared to the ancient cultures of Eastern nations like China, India, and Egypt, even when compared to the cultures of Western European countries such as Italy, Greece, Britain, and France, its development history is still relatively brief, spanning only over a thousand years. Therefore, we say it has a "late start." However, since the Christianization of Rus in 988 AD, Russian culture began to develop rapidly. Especially during Peter the Great's era in the 18th century, Russian culture was thrust into a new era of development. By the 19th century, Russian culture had entered the track of world cultural development with its unique and fresh appearance, synchronizing with global culture and reaching a remarkable height. This cannot be called "rapid progress." Russia is a transcontinental country spanning Europe and Asia, and this geographical condition has formed its distinct Eurasian cultural feature. Additionally, Russian culture has a close connection with Byzantine culture. Russian culture was established and developed after the spread of Christianity, making the religious nature another obvious feature of Russian culture. This is what we mean by Russian culture's "distinct features." As for the "high level" of Russian culture, it is easy to understand and self-evident. Although the historical development of Russian culture is not long, it has, in a short period of time, advanced various fields of culture to a remarkable level, achieving brilliance that amazes and fascinates the world. By the late 20th century, the development of Russian culture faced challenges and crises. Russian culture showed a tendency to gradually lose its national cultural characteristics. The reasons for this, of course, include the influence of the uniform trend in the cultural development of all ethnic groups in the world, but the main reason is the impact of Western culture, especially American culture, on Russian culture. Some elements in Russian culture became discordant or even contradictory to traditional culture, which I believe is a great tragedy in the development of Russian national culture. Another phenomenon worth reflecting on is that in Russia, the boundary between high culture and mass culture has become blurred. The commercialization of culture has made some traditional cultural phenomena vulgar and distasteful, which is a great regret in the development of Russian culture. These phenomena cannot help but cause us to think and worry about the development of Russian culture. This year, the Graduate Student Association of Peking University organized and hosted the "Series of Lectures on Russian Culture." The organizers invited 11 scholars to discuss themes related to Russian culture, covering Russian literature, history, philosophy, and religion, enabling Peking University students to gain a relatively complete understanding of the history of Russian cultural development, appreciate the essence of Russian culture, recognize the intellectual exploration and spiritual pursuit of the Russian people, and identify the problems in the development of Russian culture. This is a highly meaningful... [more content] This book includes lectures by Liu Wenfei on "The Russian National Character and Russian Literature," Zhang Baichun on "Orthodoxy and Russian Ideology," Zhou Qichao on "The Glory of the Silver Age," Xu Fenglin on "The Divine Encounter of Man and God in Orthodoxy," Wu Zelin on "Tolstoy and Chinese Classical Cultural Thought," Zhang Shuhua on "Radicalism and the Ten Years of Reform in Russia," Zhang Jianhua on "The Eternal Dialogue Between Lovers," Dai Guiju on "Religion and Modernization in Russia," Ling Jianhou on "Bakhtin as a Philosopher," Zha Xiaoyan on "The 'Tsarskoye Selo Phenomenon' in Russian Poetry," Wang Jianzhao on "Russian Silver Age Poetry," and Ren Guangxuan on "Russian Art."