MODEL OF RUSSIAN CULTURE IN S.P. SHEVYREV’S WORKS OF EARLY 1840'S

Abstract

The article deals with the civilizational approach of S.P. Shevyrev to the history and culture of Russia. In his works the philosopher and critic analyzes Russian history, literature and education in comparison with Western European ones, and comes to the conclusion about their distinctive character. The scholar considers the main task of his time to create a model of national culture, whose scope includes not only creativity, but also “spiritual production”: state and family upbringing and education. In this he supports the theory of “official nationality” by S.S. Uvarov. He assigns Pushkin and Gogol an important role in the education of the Russian man, not accepting the St Petersburg “industrial literature” by Belinsky, Bulgarin, Grech and opposing them his educational projects in the magazine “Moskvityanin”. The conclusion is that Shevyrev’s model of culture corresponds to N.Y. Danilevsky’s theory of cultural and historical types.