Us and Them: Bengt Jangfeldt on the Idea of Russia

From the time of Peter the Great to the reign of Vladimir Putin, the question of Russia's view of Europe and Western values has absorbed and divided the country's rulers, thinkers and people. One distinctive Russian idea, formulated almost 200 years ago, is that Russia not only differs from Western civilisation, but is morally superior to it. In the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, this idea has come to replace communism as a state ideology.

In this concise and illuminating account, Bengt Jangfeldt highlights the dramatic swings of the pendulum in Russian history. By outlining the main features of the dualistic nature of Russian civilisation, Jangfeldt leads the reader through the history of ideas of this vast country and explains how Russia became the bulwark of reactionary nationalism it is today.