Interview of the Director of the Institute of Philosophy RAS Academician of RAS A. V. Smirnov with the Editor-in-chief V. N. Shevchenko

Abstract

In the interview the director of the Institute of Philosophy Andrey V. Smirnov talks about Russian civilizational project and discusses challenges and features of its construction. In particular, he considers the issues of country’s historical and national development, es­teems the efficiency of foreign experience application in Russian specifics, uncovers the threats that Russian state and society face. The main idea of the interview describes inac­curacy of perceiving Russia as monoculture or monocivilisation and unveils its complex­ity as an amalgam of Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, traditional religions of the North and the South and people free from religion. These are all different cultural flows. So the priority of the civilizational megaproject is to unite diverse, multidirectional, mul­ticultural movements of every part of the country and to understand Russian historical trend, its logic, its sense and its future regardless to political or any other identity of the researcher. And that is why the ideological freedom is a key stone. In the end, the director highlights the importance of “Civilization studies review” as a discussion platform for the academic researchers, philosophers and all the intellectual forces of the country.