The start of understanding Russia begins with culture. However, it is often overlooked that the foreign word culture (культура) was used relatively late in Russia. If the term “culture” was spread in the latter 19th century in Russia, what was the word before the appearance of “culture”? This issue is the first step to understand Russian culture and at the same time gives a glimpse of the characteristics of Russian culture. The fact that the word culture is not yet found in Pushkin, a cultural source of Russia, shares a profound significance. The poet mainly used the word enlightenment (просвещение) in replacement of the word culture. The word culture does not exist for Gogol. He focuses on the word enlightenment, an alternative for culture. Enlightenment is not narrow and superficial like intellectual education or acquisition of knowledge but a complete spiritual perfection and purification by light of Christ. Therefore enlightenment can be understood as a way of moralreligious discipline after all. Those of who paid attention to Gogol’s concept of enlightenment being a ‘religious light’ as culture are Russia’s religious philosophers including Pavel Florensky (П. А. Флоренский), Nikolai Berdyaev (В. Бердяев), and Nicholas Roerich (Л. Рерих). They embrace the origin of the word, culture, as ‘cultus-cultura’ instead of ‘colere-cultura’. In other words, ‘culture’ in Russia is understood to origin from religion and the spiritual world. Therefore, it is important to recognize that Russia’s culture begins with “cult” rather than “cultivation”. Russia’s etymology of the word culture derives from cult and emphasizes on “sympathy” in such word.
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