Russia and the West: a horizon of challenges, responses, and threats in the conception of A.J. Toynbee

The article examines the views of A.J. Toynbee, a well-known British historian and philosopher, on the relations between Russia and the West throughout the existence of the Russian and the Western civilizations. Both of them were rooted in the Hellenic civilization. However, they were opposed to each other from the beginning as they belonged to two different branches of Christianity: the West belonged to the Catholic branch whereas Russia belonged to the Orthodox one. A.J. Toynbee argues that Russia experienced constant pressure from the West during its entire history which manifested itself as challenges and threats. The latter were used by Russia as inner incentives resulting in Russia’s original responses which sometimes were not expected by the West. This accounts for the amazing ability of the Russian civilization to revive. It was witnessed to advantage through the history of Russian statehood in which the universal state played the dominant role. In 1991 the Soviet Union stopped its existence: the universal socialist state collapsed and communist ideology slipped into the background. However, the Russian civilization was preserved embarking on a new period of resurgence and transformation. In the 1990s the West was ready to take Russia into its hands provided democracy and liberal values were established on the Russian soil. However, as soon as the new Russia tried to take its own stand in the modern world, the western attitudes changed dramatically, with Russia again being treated as a threat.