EASTERN EUROPE AS CIVILIZATIONAL PERIPHERY

Abstract

The article deals with the distinguishing features of the political development of the East European countries. The objectives of this study were to: identify the distinguishing features of the civilizational periphery regarding the civilizational center; identify the manifestation of the civilizational periphery as an area of civilizational interaction in the Eastern Europe region; identify the distinguishing features of the political development of the East European countries in the framework of civilizational approach. Following research is based on the feasibility of the civilizational approach regarding the analyses of sociopolitical change, especially regarding those particular trends in the domestic and foreign policy of the countries, which unfold not due to the current political situation, but as result of belonging to a certain civilization system. The conducted research allowed to explore the geospatial structure of the European civilization, it’s center and periphery, which includes the region of Eastern Europe. The most important feature of the civilizational periphery, as an area of civilizational interaction, has been identified as a competition of social institutions, political systems and values, determined through civilizational independence. The use of the comparative analysis of the main stages and trends of political development in Ukraine and Russia, allowed to show, how Ukraine at various stages demonstrated it’s fundamental affiliation to European civilization (in particular and to a certain extent to the West European) through permanent and diverse connections, despite being formed within the Orthodox sub-civilization. Whereas Russia, was mostly formed under conditions of intersection of the Orthodox and the Orda sub-civilizations. Resulting in civilization gap among the elites in Russia, off and on trying to re-adjust to European values, and the society, which carries the anti-western sentiment. Exactly this distinguishing feature, characteristic for «torn countries» according to the terminology of S. Huntington, causes the failure of democratic reforms, repeated return to authoritarian regimes, aggressive foreign policy and anti-Western rhetoric. On this basis, it has been determined, that Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine could be perceived as a sign of the civilizational conflict.