Conservative Criticism of Europe in Russian Public Sphere: from Orthodox Anti-Westernism to Political Mistrust in Europe
This paper analyses how the Orthodox discourse colonised political discourse. To clarify what role the Russian Orthodox Church played in the creation of conservatism hegemony in Russian politics during 2006-2015, we analyse references to the Orthodox discourse found in the official political speeches, especially in discussions of economic, political, social and cultural issues that dominate the domestic and international agenda. Since national ideology is constructed in opposition to other nations, we restrict our analysis to criticism of Europe onlyб since it is one of the core elements of Russian conservatism. Critical discourse analysis was used as a methodological and theoretical framework for studying materials. As a result, we have identified three dichotomies in the criticism of European values: (1) religion vs secularism, (2) collectivism (sobornost’) vs individualism, (3) collective morality vs liberal moral pluralism. Within the period of 2006-2012, the Orthodox discourse has been appropriated in domestic agenda. After 2013, the Russian political discourse featured conservative rhetoric in the evaluation of European modernity through the two dichotomies: secularism vs. Orthodoxy and individualism vs. sobornost’.
While nobody left any comments to this publication.
You can be first.
Agadjanian, A. (2011), “Exploring Russian Religiosity as a Source of Morality Today”, in Zigon, J. (ed.), Multiple Moralities and Religions in Post-Soviet Russia, Berghahn Books, New York, USA, 16-24.
“Appeal of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church” (2012), Recourses of the Moscow Patriarchate, April 3 [Online], available at: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/301775.html (Accessed 14 June 2019).
“Basic Values as the Basis of a National Identity”, Document was adopted at the XV World Russian People Council, Official Internet Recourses of the Moscow Patriarchate [Online], available at: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1496038.html) (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Beckford, A. J. (2012), “Public Religion and the Postsecular: Critical Reflections”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(1), 1-19.
Blitt, R. C. (2011), “Russia’s Orthodox Foreign Policy: the Growing Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in Shaping Russia’s Policies Abroad”, Journal of International Law, 33 (2), 364-456.
Bruning, A. (2012). “"Freedom" vs. "Morality" – On Orthodox Anti-Westernism and Human Rights”, in Bruning, A. and Zweerde, E. (eds.), Orthodox Christianity and Human Rights, Peetersleuven-Paris-Walpole, MA, USA, 125-155.
“Concept of Foreign Policy of Russian Federation” (2008), Security Council of Russian Federation [Online], available at: http://kremlin.ru/acts/news/785 (Accessed 14 June 2019).
“Concept of Foreign Policy of Russian Federation” (2013), Security Council of Russian Federation [Online], available at: http://www.scrf.gov.ru/documents/2/25.html (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Curanovic, A. (2012), “The Religious Diplomacy of the Russian Federation”, Russie.Nei.Reports, (12) [Online], available at: https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/ifrirnr12curanovicreligiousdiplomacyjune2012.pdf (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Van Dijk, T. (1998), Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach, SAGE Publications, London, UK.
Dubin, B. (2004), “Mass religious culture in Russia”, Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniia: Dannye. Analiz. Diskussii, 3 (71), 35-44.
Fairclough, N. (2005), “Critical Discourse Analysis in Transdisciplinary Research”, in Wodak, R. and Chilton, P. (eds.), A New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 53-71.
Filatov, S. (2014), “Russian Orthodox Church, society and the authorities in times of political turbulence”, in Malashenko, A. and Filatov, S. (eds.), Montaz I Demontaz Sekularnogo Mira, Karnegy Centre, Moscow, Russia, 9-42.
Gee, J. P. J. (2005), An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, Routledge, London and New York.
Habermas, J. (2005), “Religion in the Public Sphere”, European Journal of Philosophy, 14 (1), 1-25.
Hallward, M. C. (2008), “Situating the “Secular”: Negotiating the Boundary between Religion and Politics”, International Political Sociology, (2), 1-16.
Illarion (Alfeev), Metropolitan of Volokolam (2015), “Report at the Round Table Legacy of Saint Russia and Challenges of the Modern World”, Official Internet Recourses of the Moscow Patriarchate, January 22 [Online], Available at: http://www.mospat.ru/ru/2015/01/22/news114516/ (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Knorre, B. (2014), “Russian Orthodoxy. Post-secular Institutionalization in the Realm of Power, Politics and the Law”, in Malashenko, A. and Filatov, S. (eds.), Montaz I Demontaz Sekularnogo Mira, Karnegy Centre, Moscow, Russia, 42-103.
Lavrov, S. (2013), “Christianity has had an enormous influence on the formation of Russian statehood”, Russkaya narodnaya liniya, May 22 [Online], available at: http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2013/05/22/sergej_lavrov_pravoslavie_okazalo_kolossalnoe_vliyanie_na_stanovlenie_rossijskoj_gosudarstvennosti/ (Accessed 14 June. 2019).
Lavrov, S. (2014), “Speech at a meeting with members of the Russian Council on International Affairs”, Official Internet Recourses of the Ministry of International Affairs of Russian Federation, June 4 [Online], available at: http://archive.mid.ru//brp_4.nsf/0/412C7BA2A5A1E66544257CED0059D4DF (Accessed 14 June 2019).
“Meeting of the International Discussion Club Valdai” (2006, 2013, 2014, 2015), Official Internet Recourses of the President of Russia, September 13 [Online], available at: http://www.kremlin.ru (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Mitrofanova, A. and Knox, Z. (2014), “The Russian Orthodox Church”, in Leustean, N. L. (ed.), Eastern Christianity and Politics in the XXI Century, Routledge, London, New York, 38-67.
Neumann, I. (1996), Russia and the Idea of Europe: A Study In Identity and International Relations, Routledge, London, UK.
“Patriarch Alexey Speech at the PACE Session” (2007), Official Internet Recourses of the Moscow Patriarchate, October 2 [Online], available at: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/301775.html (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Patriarch Kirill (2010), “Russian Church and European culture”, Official Internet Recourses of the Moscow Patriarchate, February 3 [Online], available at: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1062197.html (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Petito, F. (2016), “Dialog of Civilizations in Multipolar World: Toward a Multicivilizational-Multiplex World Complex”, International Studies Review, 18 (1), 78-91.
President's Annual Address to the Federal Assembly (2006, 2008, 2011, 2012), Official Internet Resources of the President of Russia, December 12 [Online], available at: http://kremlin.ru (Accessed 14 June 2019)].
“Question-and-answer Session with Vladimir Putin” (2014), Internet Recourses of the President of Russia, April 17 [Online], available at: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20796 (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Smith, G. (1999), “The Mask of Proteus: Russia, Geopolitical Shift and the New Eurasianism”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 24 (4), 481-494.
“Speech of Vladimir Putin at Munich Security Conference” (2007), Official Internet Recourses of the President of Russia, February 10 [Online], available at: http://archive.kremlin.ru/appears/2007/02/10/1737_type63374type63376type63377type63381type82634_118097.shtml (Accessed 14 June 2019).
Yurchak, A. (2006), Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
This work was supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation under Grant Religious Majority/Minority in Public Space in Russia and Northern Europe: Historical-Cultural Analysis, number 17-18-01194.