H Cooley, G. Simmel, W. Thomas. At the junction of psychology, sociology, cultural
studies and philosophy, a theory, which explains the features and differences of
national characters was formed.
The problem of the social and cultural historical tradition and social consciousness
at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries is studied in Russia also. N. Danilevsky in his
fundamental work "Russia and Europe" characterized the Slavic cultural and historical
type, which is based on cultural tradition. In his work “The Character of the Russian
People”, N. Lossky indicated that the main factor in the Russian character formation is
Orthodoxy. In his research “The Fate of Russia”, N. Berdyaev stated both social,
cultural, and geographical reasons of a national character formation. Here, the cultural
archetype concept acquires the character of a methodological tool in understanding the
laws of a nation’s social development.
A number of modern researchers, namely A. Zapesotsky, S. Klepko,
K. Kasyanova,
P. Smirnov, V. Protsenko studied the problems of cultural and historical type,
cultural archetype, from the point of view of social philosophy, sociology, cultural
studies, analyze the problems of cultural and historical development from the position
of modernity.
Works by P. Keiler who criticized the cultural and historical theory of
L. Vygotsky occupy a special place in the cultural and historical issues.
Inclusive globalization is a feature of modern times. Today, there is a process of
not only a mechanical mixing of cultures, but also a process of extrusion, national
culture destruction by means of external tools. That means the process of replacing
social values with different, foreign, incomprehensible values. Own values,
understandable, generally accepted, formed by previous generations, that gave birth to
a cultural archetype of a nation, are being destroyed. Destruction affects not only
individuals, but also the public consciousness as a whole. The contradiction is
eliminated if the educational system corresponds to the cultural archetype. The cultural
archetype here serves both as a pedagogical goal and as a method for social value
formation. The cultural archetype acts as a pedagogical tool, and it is not a narrow
sphere of pedagogy, but is a factor of social education, in which the whole society
participates. Here, the educational process is based on public consciousness; it is also
supported by it.
Without taking into account our own peculiarities, it is impossible to take
advantage of other people's experience with profit and long-term effect in order to
pursue a rational internal policy, aimed at an adequate change in a social structure.
Fairly, liberalization in our country failed in the 60s, due to “having stumbled over our
traditions, ... over the original features of a Russian character”. And, undoubtedly, the
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