*1852:Kireevskii,Ivan
"The Character of European Education and Its Relation to Russian Education"

SOURCE: http://citd.scar.utoronto.ca/HISB07/8.RT/8.L/4.XIV.41-42.html

[What follows is an excerpt from the final 2-3 pages of Kireevskii's essay. The long paragraph below follows Kireevskii's statement "let us stop here and summarize all that we have said on the difference between Western European and ancient Russian culture". The word "culture" is one way to translate the Russian word prosveshchenie ["enlightenment" but also, as in the translation on this page, "education". The Education Ministry was, in Russian, Ministerstvo prosveshcheniia] For a complete translation of Kireevskii's essay, GO SAC. In the text below SAC editor has highlighted in bold font certain words that serve to outline Kireevskii's summary. Here are Kireevskii's words = ]

These three elements of the West -- the Roman church, ancient Roman civilization, and state organization born of violent conquest -- were entirely unknown to ancient Russia.

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Christianity penetrated the minds of Western peoples only through the teaching of the Roman church. In Russia it was kindled in the tapers of the whole Orthodox church. Theology in the West assumed the character of rational abstractness; in the Orthodox world it retained an inner wholeness of spirit [...]. There, the church became merged with the state, combining the spiritual power with the temporal power, and fusing church and secular values into a single system of mixed character. In Russia, the church remained apart from secular purposes and organizations. In the West, there were universities for scholasticism and law; in ancient Russia [there were] monasteries for prayer, concentrating within themselves all higher knowledge. There, the rational and scholastic study of higher truths; here, the striving toward an active and complete understanding of them. There, the mutual growth of pagan and Christian civilization; here, a perpetual effort to purify truth. There, a state organization based on violent conquest; here, one based on the natural development of the people's way of life, permeated with the unity of a fundamental belief. There, a hostile division of classes; in ancient Russia, their harmonious association in all their natural variety. There, the artificial bond between knights' castles and their properties led to the formation of separate states; here, the common consent of the whole country expressed spiritually its indivisible unity. There, ownership of land was the prime basis of civil relationships; here, property was only an accidental expression of personal relationships. There, a formally logical system; here, one arising from custom. There, a propensity in the law toward the appearance of justice; here, a preference for the essence of justice. There, jurisprudence strives for a logical code; here, instead of formal connections it seeks the intrinsic bond between legal principles and the principles of faith and custom. There, laws stem artificially from prevailing opinion; here, they are born naturally from life itself. There, improvements were always accomplished by forcible changes; here, by harmonious natural growth. There, the tumult of partisan spirit; here, the stability of fundamental convictions. There, the whims of fashion; here, the steadfastness of a way of life. There, the precariousness of each individual regulating himself; here, the firmness of family and social bonds. There, the foppery of luxury and the artificiality of life; here, the simplicity of basic needs and the courage of moral fortitude.... In short, there, the splitting of the spirit, the splitting of thought, the splitting of knowledge, the splitting of the state, the splitting of classes, the splitting of society, the splitting of family rights and duties, the splitting of morals and emotions, the splitting of the totality and of all the separate forms of human existence, both social and individual; in Russia, on the contrary, the primary aspiration toward the oneness of existence, both internal and external, social and individual, intellectual and worldly, artificial and moral. Therefore, if what we have said above is correct, then splitting and wholeness, rationality and wisdom will be, respectively, the ultimate expression of western European and ancient Russian civilization.

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The root of Russia's civilization still lives in her people and, most important of all, it lives in her Holy Orthodox church. Hence, it is only on this foundation, and on no other, that must be erected the firm edifice of Russian education, which has until now been built out of mixed and largely foreign materials and must therefore be rebuilt with pure materials of our own.

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