Notes from Underground: Difference between revisions

During the nineteenth century, the Russian culture became artificial because it no longer was "European". "Russia's ethical, cultural, and spiritial pricipals were changing to look more like the Western culture of that time" (Kireyesky). The Russian culture was slowly moving more westward. Part of the reason as to why this was occuring could be in part due to the nature of how the Western culture was flourishing. "In Russia, a man was considered 'developed' and 'educated' only if he was familiar with the literary and philosophical traditions of Germany, France, and England" (Madden). If this was the normal view of Russia at the time, a man who based all his ideas and opinions on the Westward culture may not have been preceved as smart. Russian culture was also strongly based on strong religious principals. Those principals were sometimes different than that of the other European countries. Philosphers such as Aristotle and Descartes influenced the Russian culture. "Russia had seperated from Europe in spirit, thus living a totally different life than the rest of Europe" (Kireyesky). Russia was still part of the European country, but just in the regional sense. Their government and religious beliefs took on a more Western feel, rather than the traditional European feel. "Russia nearly had to destroy their national personality in order to conform to Western civiliazation" (Kireyevsky). "In being captavated by the west, Russian intellectuals had lost touch with the true way of the Russian life, the life that many of the peasants and lower-class workers still practiced" (Madden). "The artifical Russian culture could, in part, be responsible for the Underground Man's retreat to 'underground'. He may have found that conforming to foreign sets of values was just too hard" (Madden).