The Concept of the Transformational Leap in Russian Culture

As it is well known, Russia's history includes several major transformations meant to completely reshape the country and change its essence, place of the world and historical identity. Such shocks include so called Westernizing reforms of the early XVIII century, revolution of 1917 and collapse of Soviet Union in 1991 not to mention such smaller but decisive upheavals as the Great reforms of 1860-s or the changes in the aftermath of Stalin's death in 1953. Given Russian obsession with history, it is unsurprising that the attitude to the transformations of such magnitude still divide the country into different ideological camps and continues to provoke intellectual civil wars. These debates make the general consensus about the desirability and logic of these transformations especially important and revealing. The talk will analyse the genesis, the causes and the structure of this implicit consensus that continues to play decisive role in Russian intellectual history until the present day.