SUMMARY:

Analyzing the work of Geoffrey Hosking, Liah Greenfeld and Tim McDaniel, the author argues that their vision of the so-called “Russian idea” is constructed through the essential opposition “Russia - the West” in the context of an existing modernization paradigm. “Russian idea” is often viewed by Western scholars as reaction to modernization. Among its alleged elements are spiritual universalism, social cohesion and solidarity, equality and unity between people and authority. The author attempts to show that all these are not specifically Russian attributes and argues for a degree of relativism in the assessment of the “Russian idea”.