Cold fusion aspects of the German cultural presence in Russia

• Main Author: Barabtarlo, Gennady
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Berghahn Books 2000; Berghahn Books, Incorporated
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Series: Studies in Slavic literature, culture, and society
• Subjects: Civilization; Comparative literature > German and Russian; Comparative literature > Russian and German; European Studies; German and Russian; German influences; History; Literature, Comparative; Russia; Russia > Civilization > German influences; Russian and German; Slavic Studies; Sociology
• ISBN: 9781571811882; 1571811885
• DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv287scc5

While historical and political aspects of the Russo-German relationship over the past three to four centuries have received due attention from scholars, the range of the far more diverse, important, and peculiar cultural relations still awaits full assessment. This volume shows how enriching these cultural influences were for both countries, affecting many spheres of intellectual and daily life such as philosophy and religion, education and ideology, sciences and their application, arts and letters, custom and language. The German-Russian relationship has always been particularly intense. Oscillating as it has between infatuation and contempt, it has always been marked by a singular paradox: a German cultural presence in Russia resulting either in a more or less complete fusion, as in the case of Russifield German, or in a pronounced mutual repulsion, accompanied by the denigration of each other's culture as inferior. It is this curious paradox that determines the perspectives of the articles that were specially written for this volume, providing it with a unifying focus.