Axiological Foundations of Russian Statehood: “Truth” and “Justice” in the Domestic Ideological and Political Discourse

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Abstract

The concept of “truth” as a valuable spiritual and political category is constantly present in Russian spiritual and political writings from antiquity to the present day. But in the 18th century, there is an important transformation of this concept in the domestic ideological and political discourse: Under the influence of the Western European tradition in Russian socio-political writings of the state, conservative-educational and radical-educational trends, there is a gradual transition from traditional concepts, including the concept of “truth”, to such concepts as “justice” or “common use”. Thus, it acquires a significance that persists, including in modern political science literature. However, the concept of “truth” in its traditional meaning does not disappear at all from the socio-political discourse of the 18th century, but is used mainly in fiction, primarily in poetry, and in the writings of the traditionalist-Orthodox trend. A similar conclusion was made possible by an original methodological approach: the analysis of the works of the authors of the 18th century. It was carried out on the basis of the search database of the National Corpus of the Russian language, while in total more than 800 texts created in 1701-1800 were studied, in which the words “truth” and “justice” were used. In addition to the general scientific methodological apparatus, the main research methods were content analysis and political-textual analysis.

About the authors

Sergey V. Perevezentsev

State Academic University for Humanities; Lomonosov Moscow State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: serp1380@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9214-1753

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Scientific and Design Department of the Scientific and Innovative Management of the State Academic University of Humanities, Professor of Department of History of Social and Political Doctrines, Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Moscow, Russian Federation

Dmitry A. Ananiev

London School of Economics and Political Science

Email: d.ananyev@lse.ac.uk
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5238-2272

Postgraduate

London, United Kingdom

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Copyright (c) 2023 Perevezentsev S.V., Ananiev D.A.

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