Theoretical seminar on September 24, 2025
On September 24, 2025, the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted a theoretical seminar entitled "Morphology of Russian civilization: historical foundations and systemic invariants"
Speaker: Konstantin Ivanovich Zubkov, PhD in History, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher, and Head of the Center for Methodology and Historiography at the Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Abstract: The presentation highlighted the diversity of assessments of the relationship between Russia and Europe in Russian and foreign historiography, as well as definitions of the concept of "civilization." It also highlighted several factors that led to Russian civilization's deviation from the pan-European path:
The geographic conditions of the East European Plain, which determined the socio-psychological uniformity of the Slavic tribes and, at the same time, the absence of prerequisites for the division of labor, which cemented the leading role of the state in the formation of society;
The raids of steppe nomads, which led to the geopolitical compression of Ancient Rus' from the southwest and the emergence of a new political center in its northeast, as well as a shift in the social, cultural, and psychological structure toward greater mass participation, discipline, and caution;
The chosen tactic of "land gathering"—the de facto expansion of the grand ducal domain and the formation of a "patrimonial state"—led to the establishment and reproduction throughout subsequent history of a universal type of sole authority, reaching and hearing everyone without the intermediary links of local elites;
The inability to stabilize territorial boundaries due to the absence of an ancient heritage predetermined the leading role of the military class and the transformation of society into a vast military camp, with non-systemic elements being displaced or suppressed; this structure subsequently led to the formation of multiple estates, each with assigned functions while remaining politically powerless, as well as to the tension between private rights and public responsibilities that persists to this day. The speaker answered questions regarding the economic determinants of Russian colonization and its benefits for various segments of Russian society, the role of external driving forces in the development of Russian civilization and its ability to exert a similar influence today, and the initiation of the historical alienation of Russia and Europe. At the conclusion of the seminar, Mikhail Kazantsev, Head of the Law Department, presented Konstantin Zubkov with a commemorative photo collage from a joint conference of the Institute of Philosophy and Law and the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of their founding.
*The seminar was held as part of the research project "Creating a Russian Historiographic Model of Political and Legal Knowledge and Its Application to the Development of Promising Means of Countering Ideological Distortions in Russia's Civilizational Development," implemented with the financial support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science (Agreement No. 075-15-2024-639 dated July 12, 2024).