“Dangerous Russia”. Is Russia dangerous? Rev.: Afanas’ev, Yu.N. (2001), “Dangerous Russia. Traditions of autocracy today”, RGGU, Moscow

Abstract

The article is a reference to the monograph by Y.N. Afanasyev’s “Dangerous Russia. The traditions of autocracy today”, which received devastating criticism from both the historical and the political science community. However, turning to the work 20 years after its release allows one to discard a number of limiting factors and look at the text in a new way, to understand what meanings the author of the monograph was trying to convey to his reader.

The article concludes that the predominant emotional nature of the work of Y.N. Afanasyev is based on the historical and biographical context of the work. Such approach to the analysis of the work of Yu.N. Afanas’ev was not previously presented in the scientific literature, however, without taking into account the personality of the author himself, the reader can consider completely different meanings.

The paper reveals a hidden meaning of the work related to the fact that Y.N. Afanasyev perceived the development of contemporary Russia as a looped movement in a circle. Such point of view is supported by the comments of Y.N. Afanasyev, as well as the structure of the monograph itself, which is the closest symbiosis of the history and politics of Russia.