Book chapter
Россия между Востоком и Западом: кризис идентичности
С. 447-456.
The volume contains a selection of papers delivered to the first five annual conferences "Written Monuments of the East: Problems of translation and interpretation" (2011–2015) organized on the base of the permanent seminar "Textual Criticism and Source Study of the East" (Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow) by the staff of the Department of Oriental Written Sources.
In his article Vladimir Kantor explores the destiny of Russia intelligentsia within the context of cultural crisis that took place at the turn of XIX and XX centuries, analyzing the Vekhovs, a group of leading intellectuals who ran a collection of essays, titled "Vekhi", studying their relationship towards that Russian cultural phenomenon. To author, the intelligentsia is considered as a critical factor in the development of Russian history. Within a context of the struggle around the "Vekhi", by referring to famous philosophical and literature books, published in 1909, the author focuses on relationships between intelligentsia and ordinary people, their attractive and repulsive interaction, which represents the key theme of the Russian destiny. Any historical movement occurs through tragedy; heroes who move the history have to sacrifice themselves to provide that movement. Confirmation to that idea would be rejection and exclusion of the Russian intelligentsia from the country's mentality throughout a number of generations which ultimately led to its tragic being.