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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 11

Publication Date: November 25, 2022

DOI:10.14738/assrj.911.13497. Facco, E., & Tagliagambe, S. (2022). The Century-Old Swinging of Russia Between Order and Dissolution, East and West: A Historical

and Psychocultural Insight in the Russian-Ukrainian War. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(11). 447-460.

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The Century-Old Swinging of Russia Between Order and

Dissolution, East and West: A Historical and Psychocultural

Insight in the Russian-Ukrainian War

Enrico Facco

Studium Patavinum – Dept. of Neurosciences

University of Padua, Italy

Inst. Franco Granone

Italian Center of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, Turin, Italy

Silvano Tagliagambe

Professor emeritus of Philosophy of Sciences

University of Sassari, Italy

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to analyze the recent Russian behavior from a historical,

cultural and psychological perspective in the attempt to better understand the

sudden shift from a western oriented policy to the rejection of the West and the shift

toward the East. In the West, progress has been conceived as a process of controlled

linear change in the hope to develop and improve prosperity and wellbeing along

the arrow of time. On the other hand, any change has been always conceived as an

eschatological overturning in Russia, where the previous condition is radically

refused and the new one is the result of its turn upside down. On psychological

standpoint, this dual structure seems to depend on proneness to splitting and

inability to integrate the opposites - a behavior similar to primary defense

mechanisms of the infants that may persist in adult life. The Russian psychocultural

inclination to a dual axiological structure also is in line with the dualist Orthodox

religious belief, contemplating only heaven and hell and denying purgatory. The

above century-old dual structure of Russian mentality is also compatible with

Putin’s dual behavior, initially reproaching the West and then radically refusing it

as a sort of absolute evil.

Keywords: Russia; Orthodoxy, Russian; Psychology; Politics; Anthropology

INTRODUCTION

Oceania was at war with Eurasia:

Therefore, Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil,

and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.

George Orwell 1984

We are living in a worldwide complex epoch, as threatening as it is extraordinary. In fact, the

threat involves the whole biosphere, marked by pandemics, an impending ecological disaster,

the benefits and potential harms of artificial intelligence and big data, and an international

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 11, November-2022

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geopolitical instability resulting in a new arm race and the risk of an atomic war. At the same

time, its extraordinariness lies in revealing the limits of the classic Western thought and the

related Weltanschauung (image of the world), suggesting the need for a shift of paradigm in

order to better face, a), the relationship between human kind and Nature, and, b), social and

international relationships.

If this analysis is correct, a change of Weltanschauung and related habits is essential to better

adapt to the environment, or even to survive tout court. The above-mentioned problems may

be conceived as different parts of a complex system in an impeding transformation, where all

components are interdependent and any effect is a potential cause of other effects in an

integrated, inseparable whole. An essential feature of a complex system is the capacity to

change its reaction to the same stimuli over time, thanks to the adaptation of its parts. As a

result, it is a dynamic, non-deterministic phenomenon, the modus operandi of which cannot be

properly faced by the classic approach, anchored to Aristotelian logic and the prevailing

reductionist-determinist perspective prevailing in science [1–3].

In a globalized world the 20th century ethnocentric Western perspective seems no longer

enough to properly understand the reality and a transcultural, metaphilosophical approach is

needed. It may help better comprehending other cultures from inside, beyond their formal

differences and different modes of theorization, where a common field of reflection allows to

look for connections and common problems rather than formal differences, and the problem’s

unity in the multiplicity of forms [4].

The recent Ukraine war, the subsequent opposition between Russia and the West and the

threatening crisis in Taiwan opposing USA and China are part of this extremely complex system,

that have been essentially faced from an ethnocentric political-economic-military stance. This

is correct and pragmatically useful, but a transcultural approach may help envisaging relevant,

otherwise skipped, aspects, allowing to better understand the problem by a wider perspective,

a condition sine qua non in the attempt to solve it.

Though political decisions and behaviors mainly depend on interests and pragmatic goals, they

are made by leaders with their beliefs and personality and are affected by cultural factors. Their

role is greater the more the system is authoritarian, while in democracies it may be smoothen

by the political dialogue between government and opposition.

Psychopolitics has been introduced between the two world wars in the attempt to investigate

the psychodynamic factors involved in political problems. In early 20th century it adopted a

strictly Freudian psychanalytic perspective - being psychanalysis the most fashionable theory

to explain unconscious processes and the resulting behavior at that time - resulting in a

politicization of psychanalysis. Therefore, psychanalysis swung between historical materialism

(pointing at a Marxist psychoanalysis), a Neo-Freudian liberalism, and a solely medical

specialty [5]. At the same time, Adler criticized the revolutionary policy of Bolshevism and

authoritarian regimes as expressions of will of power and the related intoxication, opening the

doors to reformist socialism [6]. Later on, Bastide, keeping a psychoanalytic perspective,

suggested a relevant role of the unconscious (not reducible to Freudian libido only) in shaping

social institutions and vice versa [7].