Russian national distinctness in the context of Russian history's discreteness

The article lay out a concern of the synergies between the specific cultural gaps in Russian history and the qualitative transformations of Russian society in relation to the dynamics of Russian civilizational identity. Particular attention in this context is paid to the role of foreign cultural influences in the dynamics of Russian national distinctness. The article presents an analysis of some typical Russian discourses on the dynamics of Russian civilizational and national distinctness in the context of Russia's interaction with foreign cultural civilizations, especially with Western European civilization. The limitations of the models of discreteness and internal contradiction, splitting Russian national distinctness are established. The authors argue that, located between the cultures of the East and the West, Russia demonstrates in its history a unique ability to creatively recycle such different cultural influences and synthesize them, enriching its own original civilizational identity. The idea of fluctuations in the history of Russia cycles of relative openness and closure of Russian culture to foreign cultural influences is being pursued. A model that combines the discreteness and continuity of Russian history and Russian civilizational identity is proposed. Continuity is based on Russian civilizational invariants, which ensure that the specific identity of Russian civilization is preserved in all historical metamorphoses. Historical transformations of the phenomenal manifestations of these invariants ensure the dynamism of Russian civilizational national distinctness as a deployment of its internal potentialities in the course of Russian history.