The Russophobic Component of the Civilizational Consciousness of the Czech Republic and Poland: A Historiosophical Consideration

The article aims to identify the sources and trends of Russophobia of Czechs and Poles, peoples belonging to the periphery of the Western world. Civilizational consciousness is a reflection of the division of the world into civilizational areas and builds its substantive essence on the basis of the binary opposition civilization – barbarism. In the European (Western) version, barbarism is synonymous with Asiaticism, the features of which are attributed to Russia, endowing it with the role of a negative constituent of the Other. Within the framework of the peripheral con-sciousness of Czechs and Poles, the tendency to endow Russia with Asian features of the negative constituent Other is even more accentuated and persistent, which apparently acts as a way of Western self-presentation of Czechs and Poles who are at the junction of Western and Russian civilizational influence. The texts of representatives of the intel-lectual establishment of the Czech Republic and Poland characterize double standards – a sharply critical attitude towards Russia, while demonstrating full loyalty to the Western world. An additional source of Polish Russophobia is the factor of historical memory. On the one hand, there are numerous wars over disputed territories, on the other hand, there is a 120–year-old attempt by Russia to integrate Poles who have too much experience of staying in the system of cultural and political coordinates, which has intensified the already considerable mental contradictions.