Russia: Absent and Present by Wladimir Weidle

Russia: Absent and Present by Wladimir Weidle Translated by A. Gordon Smith with an Introduction by the Honorable Richard Hare This book faces first the age-long question of Russia's relationship to Europe and gives an emphatic answer: Russia's Byzantine heritage has its origin in classical antiquity just as does the culture of the West. Only within the European community can Russia reach her full stature and make her full cultural contribution to the world. Next is a survey of Russia's cultural development and cultural problems from the Kievan period to the present time. Russia's chief weakness in the past, as Weidle sees it, was a lack of homogeneity, of integration. There was too deep a gulf between the people with its rich but vast and formless "horizontal" culture and the elite capable of building on that foundation the "vertical" culture which produces true work of art. With the Revolution, this cleavage ceased to exist, but cultural values too were swept away, giving place to what is called "anti-culture," a rational obscurantism, closely related to Russian nineteenth-century nihilism, against which the spirit is powerless. Weidle's style is stimulating with intuitive deductions and a lively, fluent style. Paperback. Used-good condition - library discard. All pages intact. Smoke-free. 50% of the profits from this sale will be donated to a local Friends of the Library. Russian History Historical Politics Political BKNK