The value foundations of civilizational confrontation in the post-Soviet space

Abstract

The article considers the values of public consciousness as sources of civilizational confrontation in the post-Soviet space. The author analyzes the types of public speech pathos — heroic, religious, state, national, social and supranational — formed in the process of civilizational development of countries and peoples inhabiting them. The stable movement of society along the path of progress is subject to the principle of progressive change of the types of public speech pathos: starting from the heroic one (which is the most ancient) and up to the supranational one (which is the last known today), the other types mentioned above sequentially falling in between.

The civilizational differences between Russia and the Western countries are largely due to the radical difference between their corresponding sets of values: the mainly heroic pathos professed by the Russian public consciousness and replicated in the Russian public speech contrasts with the supranational values on which the public consciousness of the Western community stands. An attempt to plant supranational values on Russian soil in modern socio-political conditions violates the principle of progressive change of the types of public speech pathos — as practice shows, this attempt turns into a threat of disintegration of the country. Further, the difference in values between the Western countries and the countries located in the post-Soviet 0space that are in search of the value foundations of their own statehood often generates tension in their relations with Russia. The noted contradictions in the domestic political situation and international relations require that all interested parties pay careful attention to the choice and use of the values of public consciousness in public speech, as well as in political and military discursive practices.