Institute of Sociology
of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology
of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Podyachev K.V. On the question of the historical foundations of the Russian specifics of development: the Battle of Kulikovo and the formation of a centralized state. Theories and Problems of Political Studies, 2020, Vol. 9, No. 5А, pp. 16-25. DOI: 10.34670 ...



Podyachev K.V. On the question of the historical foundations of the Russian specifics of development: the Battle of Kulikovo and the formation of a centralized state. Theories and Problems of Political Studies, 2020, Vol. 9, No. 5А, pp. 16-25. DOI: 10.34670/AR.2020.70.82.002
ISSN 2223-5442
DOI 10.34670/AR.2020.70.82.002

Posted on site: 15.01.21

 


Abstract

This article is a beginning of series of works devoted to the problem of the historical origins of the formats of social and political development in Russia. Represented analysis based on the innovative concept of the paradigm of social action, developed by the Russian sociologist O. Aksenova. According to this concept, the main sociocultural feature of Russia is the actor's approach to social action. It is based on an independent assessment of the situation and the free choice of forms of behavior by the acting subject. On the contrary, the technological model of social action presupposes the solution of standard problems by standard methods. This model is more characteristic of Western European and Confucian civilizations. This article is an attempt to apply this approach to the analysis of the battle on Kulikovo field in 1380 and related historical events. The author examines this event in a broad context, taking into account sociological, political, and cultural approaches. In this regard, it is not so much historical factology that is important as its spiritual and cultural resonance and the influence it exerted on the formation of Russia as a political organism and a special socio-cultural body. Based on the interpretation of historical data by G. Prokhorov, the connection between political, economic and spiritual-ideological processes taking place at that time in Europe, the Tatar Khanates and the Russian land is shown. Particular attention is paid to the impact on the spiritual and cultural atmosphere of Russia of that era of the Byzantine Palamite disputes of 1335-1351. As a result, the author concludes that victory in the battle on the Kulikovo field is a co-existence not so much of a military, as of a political, ethnic and spiritual significance.