The Concept of ‘Russian Europeans’ In an Anti-War Film ‘The Cuckoo’

Ch. 4. P. 63–78.

Akopov S.

In the second quarter of the 20th-century Russian émigré philosopher Georgii Fedotov coined the description of a personality type termed the “Russian European”. He distinguished the creative type of “Russian Europeans” loyal to both Russian and European cultural values from two other negative types: the “autocratic-despot” and “anti-state-nihilist”. In this chapter I look at how this concept was further theorised in works of Vladimir Kantor and Alexei Kara-Murza and relate it to an anti-war message developed in a 2002 Russian film The Cuckoo.

Interpreting The Cuckoo this chapter, in particular, shows how various scenes from the movie overlap with ideas of “dialogism” and help to deconstruct what Mikhail Bakhtin called an “authoritative discourse”. I also explore how concepts like “life knowledge” and “all-unity” (by Semyon Frank) enable us to speak up against war and political violence today.

 

Keywords: кино, movies, русский европеец, Russian Europeanism

Publication based on the results of: Метафоры России о Европе: анализ политико-философского дискурса о суверенитете через призму моделей политической идентификации (2017)

In book

The Interplay Between Political Theory and Movies: Bridging Two Worlds

Berlin: Springer, 2019.