Idol of dreamers. The West through the eyes of Russian classics

Since the time of Peter the Great, the West has always been interested in Russia and has been the subject of thoughts, understanding, admiration, denial of our writers, philosophers, and public figures. This is not to say that Europe in this case met Russia. But the presence of our country, as a powerful and irreversible factor in pan -European policy, made the inevitable Russians in European public life. This book contains articles, essays, notes of our philosophers, writers, publicists about the West. Written for 70 years (from 1854 to 1926), of course, they do not fully reflect the controversy that was conducted on the pages of magazines, in salons, in literary works, but on the example of the authors, for our cultural culture, are able to show That variety of opinions and assessments and those questions that our compatriots asked the Western world long before us. Today, the “Western question” is still relevant and again causes fierce disputes in our society. Therefore, to remember that not our most stupid people wrote a hundred years ago, more than useful. And it should be noted that if from some articles to remove the author’s name and the year of publication, you might think that they have been written more recently - many of their passages and phrases are so accurately and vulnerable