On the Idea of Justice in Russian Culture

Abstract

The article is an attempt to describe the substantial features of the interpretation of the idea of universal justice in the Russian culture. It is noted that Russian culture has axiological duality. Justice is understood as acceptable to the measure of moral consciousness and to the order of proper distribution of benefits and burdens. In Russian culture justice acquires some basic conceptual meanings. The article states that the central, basic meaning of justice in the Russian culture is associated with the category of “pravda” (truth) and dates back to the moral and religious “righteousness”. Russian society did not develop the rational principles of social justice. Justice in the Russian culture for the most part is reduced to sense of justice. Understanding of justice in contemporary Russian humanities and academic publications does not have much originality and independency. The social and cultural reasons for non-appearance in Russia of a full-fledged academic tradition, comparable to the western tradition of the analysis of justice, can be seen in 1) the lack of equal social and political actors (state power - people), that is the absence of real “Rechtstaat” (legal state) and civil society, and in 2) the dominance of the moral and religious discourse of justice.