Roots and crowns. Where did Russian culture come from

Konstantin Kustanovich is a distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University with over 25 years of experience teaching Russian language, literature, and culture. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and specializes in Russian literature of the 20th century and the history of Russian culture. He is the author of the book "The Artist and the Tyrant: The Works of Vasily Aksenov in the Brezhnev Era" and several articles on Russian literature, primarily from the second half of the 20th century, and Russian culture. In his new book "Roots and Crowns: Where Russian Culture Came From," Konstantin develops the idea that the unique history of Russia and Russian Orthodox culture, which had a colossal influence on the formation of Russian national culture as a whole, lies at the heart of the centuries-old confrontation between Russia and the West. The book extensively demonstrates and explains the continuity of not all, but the main and extremely important aspects of Russian culture, from Kievan Rus to post-Soviet Russia. These aspects include the peculiarities of religion, education, and secular culture, collectivism and work ethic, traditions of morality and law, peculiarities of perceiving foreign cultures, and cultural psychology aspects such as the formation of individual consciousness and cultural continuity.