The Iconicity of Russian Culture
Russian culture should be adequately represented in the modern cultural consciousness as a unique phenomenon. Among new approaches there seem to be three that can be considered the most important and promising. 1) The concept of the iconicity of Orthodox culture, created by V.V. Lepakhin, that is now being developed by a significant number of interesting authors in various aspects. 2) The concept of Russian literature Easterness (Paskhalnost), substantiated by I.A. Yesaulov and potentially applicable to the general specific characteristics of Russian culture as a whole. 3) The concept of Russian culture as the “culture of transformation”, in contrast to the Western culture of individual “self-realization”. The purpose of this article is to review the most important works within the outlined conceptual field and formulate general principles for understanding the iconicity of Russian culture as its ontological basis. From the methodological point of view, we are talking about a kind of “archeology of culture” (by analogy with the “archeology of knowledge” of M. Foucault) - that is, the discovery of the primary historical foundations of Russian culture, which were later obscured by the influence of Western culture, especially in its secular forms. In the West, the original and universal principle of the iconicity of Christian culture was gradually replaced by the principle of “sculpturality”. If iconicity is the focus of man and every creature on the Creator and on his highest heavenly perfection, which presupposes the path of transformation and the clear distinction between the created and non-created; then sculpturality is the self-sufficiency of man and all creations, closing them in their proud selfsufficiency, and thereby closing the way for their transformation. Since the Christian East has preserved Orthodoxy, it is here that the original “matrix” of Christian culture has been preserved, indestructible by any later Western influences, although it has experienced strong deformations and “pseudomorphoses” under their onslaught. Iconicity is the original ontology of culture as such: on the one hand, it preserves the original paradise connection with eternal and perfect existence at the moment of creation; on the other hand, it also carries the act of ontological catastrophe bringing death, evil and imperfection into the world. The concept of Russian culture “iconicity” is considered to be the most important theoretical achievement of modern Russian thought. It combines, on the one hand, cultural and theological accuracy, and, on the other, - the huge practical potential for the revival of the national spirit.