Yury Simonov-Viazemsky (Yu. S.-V.), the writer, the author and producer of Russian Teleolympiade «Umnicky i Umnitzy» (Wise and Clever), Honoured Cultural Worker of Russia, the head of the Department of World Literature and Culture of MGIMO, the editor-in-chief of the Journal "Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture" is interviewed by MGIMO Professor, Doctor of Philosophy Margarita Silantieva (M.S.) and Ph.D. student Daria Liubinsky (D.L.).

Abstract. Milton Bennett's model of inter cultural sensitivity development is one of the most common and acknowledged models in non-formal education and training. Partially being based on its author's personal overseas living and working experience (US Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia from 1968-1970 and fifteen years of teaching and training experience in inter cultural communication), it resides theoretically on wider phenomenological approach to the construction of different cultural meanings. The founding hypothesis of the model in question is dynamical. Cultural differences are understood not as posited but as constructed processes and therefore may be subjected to further development. It an ideal case, it is presupposed that development occurs beginning from stage of an utter ethnocentrism and moves forward towards an ultimate ethno-relativistical point of view. The latter stage is reflected in cultural and moral relativism, as well as in capability for fully intentional, (auto-)reflexive empathy. Bennett's model designates six stages of inter cultural sensitivity development. These are: 1) denial of cultural differences; 2) defense of the culturally binary world-view; 3) minimization of differences; 4) their acceptance; 5) adaptation; 6) integration of cultural differences into one's own, constructed and ever constructing self. We analyze all of the stages proposed by Bennett, especially concentrating our attention on the final, integrating stage. Founding our argumentation on theoretical reasons, as well as on personal significant overseas living experience, we question the alleged cultural and moral “statelessness” of this stage. Contrary to Bennett's conception, we show that the so-called integrative stage of inter cultural sensitivity is no more than a pseudo-universalistic outgrowth of one specific type of culture.

Social consciousness studies are essential to humanities provided by the university program. This is of particular importance as a part of the philosophical course since only philosophy regards social consciousness as a whole system. Forms and levels of social consciousness are in the foreground. Each form is stressed to be manifested at all levels although to different degrees. The status of science remains controversial. Scientific consciousness and ordinary consciousness must be distinguished. It is rather difficult for students and post-graduates to understand what social psychology means and what kind of role it plays in public life. Ideology takes a special place in social consciousness structure. We should pay particular attention to it. Correlation between social, group and individual consciousness is a serious problem. Learning of this theme is of educative and practical importance. It favors the skills of joint activity in students' group encouraging to overcome fragmentariness typical of some young people consciousness and to form consistent thinking in its turn. We should dwell on the question of values both on theoretical and practical levels. The concept of a possible conflict of values is of great practical importance. On the one hand modern person is engaged in global processes and shares "all-human" values, on the other - being grown up in some ethno-cultural environment he shares the values of the ethnic group. Trying to solve the intrapersonal conflict, students form creative attitude to education and upbringing. Comprehension of what values are and why they clash with each other will help students to become subjects of intercultural interaction. The question of what humanism is and how to put it into practice will be raised over again.

Each historic period entails a distinct set of philosophical themes. Recent phase can be distinguished by its attempts to "reform" the attitude towards human consciousness in the context of the expansion of "artificial intelligence". The majority of researchers consider the latter to be the "heritage" of Western philosophy. In this article, I propose to initiate an expansion of this platform through connections with the philosophy of the East, and more precisely through the works of one of its representatives, a Bukharian named Ibn Sina (980-1037). He was responsible for conducting a virtual experiment for the first time in human history: the "Flying man". This creative approach resulted in a successful harmonisation of relations between the great "debaters" of the Antiquity, and perhaps, paved the path for a more justified and efficient version of human consciousness.

Key foreign policy factors and the conditions of the reception of Buddhism by the Russian culture in the 19th - 20th centuries are analyzed in the article. It is noticed that the unification of Russia's and England's interests to India and Tibet in the frame of so-called "big game" was one of the important features of the geopolitical situation in the 19th - the beginning of 20th century. The script of the "big game" was caused by the fact that the Buddhists composed the population of the Russian Empire; their communities were in continual contacts with Dalai Lama and sought to make a pilgrimage to Tibet. To strengthen power in Siberia and the Trans-Baikal region and to consolidate influence in neighboring Mongolia, the government of the Russian Empire was to demonstrate care of the Russian Buddhists. Buddhist leaders and public figures, scientists, writers and artists supporting Buddhism played a key role in that case. One of the most important figures of that time was Agvan Dorjiev, Envoy Extraordinary and confidant of Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan mission in Russia in 1898, 1900 and 1901. The activity of I. P. Minaev and F. I. Stcherbatsky was of great importance in the development of the Eastern vector of Russian science and strengthening ties with the Buddhist world. Themes of India, Tibet, and Buddhism are reflected in literary works of this period. The study of foreign policy factors influencing the reception of Buddhism in Russia in the XIX - XX centuries contributed to the identification of this reception's content, its focus and specificity, caused by the global socio-political context. The process of the reception of foreign culture and "foreign" cultural features is defined in the article as a broad act of the reflection of other cultures phenomena and values in different cultural spheres of the accepting culture, expressing the intentions of its dynamics and being determined by specific historical and cultural context.

Specific features of eschatological, messianic and apocalyptic worldviews of Buddhism about the future, and their differences from Christian ones are being explored in the article. Based on the analysis of the works of domestic and foreign authors, it is concluded that the Messianic, eschatological and apocalyptic ideas of Christianity about the future are practically not represented in the canonical texts of Buddhism, although this topic, as it is known, presupposes such elements. The author relies on philosophical and religious studies, dialectical principles, comparative historical methods and textual analysis of religious texts of Buddhism and Christianity. The novelty of the study is that in the religious texts of Buddhism about the future there are eschatological and messianic ideas, similar to Christianity, interpreted by Buddhists in a different doctrinal and dogmatic manner. The author of the article asserts that the philosophical and religious analysis of Buddhism about the future is based on the anthropic principle, grounded in the philosophy of organicism, according to which man and society are interconnected with the cosmotellurgical environment. The core of the philosophical and religious system of Buddhism is the concept of cyclic time, the sacred concept of "kalpa". Kalpas " - are the eras of enormous length, into which the universe is divided. They begin and end with universal cataclysms and contain cosmogonic, eschatological and messianic themes. The concept of "mappo" - resembles the "apocalyptic arithmetic" of Christianity, in which frequent ups and downs occur taking up the destructive forms. But they give hope for the arrival of Maitreya-Messiah, who will save them from the accumulated problems, and in Christianity, Jesus Christ will put the end to the modern civilization. In conclusion, the inference is drawn: despite the intricacy of eschatological, apocalyptic concepts in the Mongol, Chinese, Korean and Japanese doctrinal systems of Buddhism, there is the general that unites them with the Christian one, it is the desire of world renewal.

The article, for the first time in Russian research, studies the view of protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann on the issue of the relationship between the common and the personal in the Divine liturgy. The investigation showed that Alexander Schmemann, starting from the notion of the liturgy as the common work of the church assembly, and therefore, from the primacy of the common in the liturgy, at the same time acknowledges the existence of the personal, i.e. the importance of the liturgy for each human person. The antinomy between the common and the personal is resolved by Schmemann in accordance with Christ's words in the Gospel: "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it" (Mk 8:35 and parall.). The investigation is preceded by an introduction to the problematics of Fr. Schmemann's work in the area of liturgy and an indication of his contribution to the study and interpretation of Orthodox worship. In conclusion, the author indicates the sources of Alexander Schmemann's ideas on the problem of the common and the personal in the Divine liturgy and characterizes his own contribution to its solution.

The article presents a study of the scientific institution organizational culture as a part of the national research culture. The problem becomes more relevant in the context of the modern Russian science reforming. The specifics of organizational culture in connection with the organization's branch of activity are observed. Values of specific scientific organizations depend not only on the values of the world of science, but also on the values of national culture. Correlation between the specifics of the Russian scientific environment and the mentality of Russians has been noted. Also the importance of studying the organization's common past in order to build its future is emphasized. The results of the research carried out in 4 focus groups consisting of employees of various laboratories of the Institute of Psychology of RAS are analyzed. The format of a group interview was based on the concept of organizational culture of E. Shane. In general, the organizational culture of the modern Russian humanitarian scientific organization preserves elements inherited from the Soviet humanitarian research organization, marked by orientation to the past. Employees feel their affiliation with a scientific school; there is a directorship tradition with representative functions and a short distance power.

The article considers the principle of parity of cultures in its application to work with publicistic texts. Traditionally, the methodological basis is understood by the concepts and theories underlying the research. In the author's study, the principle of parity of cultures is the basis for working with the texts of the mass media and its theoretical ground. When teaching a foreign language in an institution of an international profile, the use of media texts is dictated by a number of factors, among which penetration of media into all spheres of foreign society's life is the main. In this way, the study of language and culture as professionally significant information for an international student becomes impossible without involving relevant media materials in the learning process. Working with these materials, one should use such an approach to perception and interpretation of media information that emphasizes the intercultural comparison of value systems, opinions and perceptions of the societies under consideration. Thus, the principle of parity of cultures is put at the center of the methodical system. This principle implies the equality of interacting cultures, in our case, the native culture of students and the culture of the country of the studied language. The principle of parity is based on the idea of egalitarianism or equality of cultures. This message assumes the need for a thorough analysis of incoming information, its critical comprehension in terms of priorities and values of both cultures. Therefore, "immersion" in the world of the studied culture allows not only to understand "someone else's" one, but also to look at your own culture differently, to rethink speech and behavioral stereotypes, to realize the value and depth of the acquired cultural tradition. We believe that the publicistic texts used in teaching process can be considered as the basis for mediated communication with native speakers who created them. As a result of this communication, the student perceives the information necessary to him, analyzes it and draws his own conclusions. As part of the process the principle of parity is realized: the active interaction of the two cultures, based on a critical comprehension of the arguments and logical constructions of the author-interlocutor. So, using the principle of parity of cultures as a methodological basis for working with publicistic texts provides an opportunity to teach MGIMO students an adequate assessment of media data. The result of this work is the assimilation of important cultural-specific and professionally relevant information, as well as the formed personal position on the issues discussed.

There is increased attention to Russia and, in particular, to the Russian literature and culture in the recent years in Brazil due to closer contacts and cooperation between the two countries. This interest is manifested in various aspects: first, Russian literature and culture attracts more attention in the university academic environment (both the number of students who choose to study Russian, history, literature and culture, and the number of scientific studies are increasing; Universities in Brazil are organizing more and more academic events focusing on different aspects of Russian history and culture), and second, there is an increased attention of the wide audience. The purpose of this article is to define the contemporary perception of Brazilian literature by Brazilians and to trace the evolution of this perception. Brazilian readers are familiar with Russian writers since the end of the XIX century (when translations of the Russian classics novels by F. Dostoyevsky and L. Tolstoy entered the country), but until the middle of the 20th century the list of Russian authors and works known to the Brazilian public was pretty limited. Limitations were related partly to the quality of translations - right up to the middle of the 20th century, the translation of Russian authors works was made not directly from the Russian language, but through intermediary languages, which led to even more semantic and stylistic distortions in the re-translated text. The School of Russian Studies originated in Brazil in the 1960s at the University of Sao Paulo and is associated with the name of the translator B. Shnaiderman, who introduced the first translations of literary texts directly from the Russian language to Brazilian readers. In the past two decades a new round of interest in Russian literature has been observed and the number of translations of Russian authors from different eras into Portuguese is increasing. Along with the number of translations made, the growth of translation quality is being reported. In this article, we will briefly review the history of interaction of two cultures through the lens of the Brazilian school of Russian studies and translation development.

Science has a great impact on all spheres of public life in the contemporary world. So the question whether the public knows about the recent scientific achievements and developments becomes of current importance. This article focuses on the communication between the scientists and the journalists considered as the mediators between science and society. Are both sides ready to interact? How do they conceive the interests, goals etc. of each other? What forms of dialog do they practice? This article aims to answer these questions. It is based on qualitative research (method of unstructured interviews) conducted among scientists and journalists. The main goal of the article is to analyze the subjective dimension of scientific communication between the parties determining whether the stereotypes and attitudes, existing among the journalists and scientists, promote or hinder the effective communication between them. In the course of research 24 interviews (11 with journalists, 13 with scientists) conducted. On the average each interview lasted 50 minutes. The results of the study demonstrate, that the communication among journalists and scientists suffer from the lack of motivation to interact from both sides. Journalists mostly use the ready-made materials from informational agencies or texts from other media while preparing the articles. Scientists are also lack of interest to engage actively with mass-media; they argue that such an activity doesn't have a direct impact on their professional careers. Russian scientific centers don't encourage their staff to interact with journalists. As a result, we can approve, that scholarly and journalist communities exist in parallel dimensions in modern Russia.

In the article the situation and practice of cross-cultural interaction interpreted by modern Western European Neopaganism is considered. The main attention is paid to Neopaganism's consideration of cross-cultural communication proceeding from the "blood and soils" concept as sacral metaphysical values. Analogies to other ideological systems considering cross-cultural interaction proceeding from ontologic realities are drawn. Peculiar features of Neopagan criticism of multiculturalism concepts and cross-cultural integration are analyzed. In fact, European neo-pagan - ism is a hostage of the contradictions generated by the internal logic of its ideological system. An attempt to combine isolationism with an active social position, typical of the ideology of European neo-paganism, logically gives rise to radicalization of rhetoric, in which the problem of intercultural relations and communications is interpreted by neo-paganism. The main task set and solved in the framework of the article is to find out all the factors contributing to the formation of a certain attitude of modern European neo-paganism to the problem of cross-cultural communication. The summarizing conclusion of the article is: neo-pagan interpretation of intercultural interaction can be treated as an attempt of archaic and traditionalist ideology to meet the challenges of European modernity. In addition, understanding the culture as a natural part of life, neo-paganism in fact refuses to recognize the socio-cultural sphere as an autonomous and self-contained part of the national and individual existence.

The stereotype of the Russian bear, very strong, aggressive and impossible to control, has gained new popularity in the West after the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. It traces its origins back to the 16th century's Europe and even earlier, but nowadays it is being actively imported into Russia and occurs not only in daily use, but also in political rhetoric, including President Vladimir Putin's public speeches. The negative connotations of the image are not typical for Russia itself though. In Russian folk tales and jokes, a bear is most of the time slow and even dumb - or cute and harmless, like the Olympic mascot of 1980, or Winnie-the-Poor from the famous Soviet cartoon. Over the last two and a half decades, a new "bear brand" has emerged to cover various spheres of life - from names of food and drinks to a political party. Within Russia, the negative image of the bear promoted in the West is taken with a grain of salt and has grown to become a powerful device of political rhetoric, which is successfully exploited by President Putin to make Russia's position clear to the public. The moment the image of the Russian bear is introduced into a political text, immediately suggests a certain set of connotations to the listeners or readers. For western politicians, it is the image of the worst enemy, strong, wild, unpredictable and dangerous. In the Russian political rhetoric, however, it conveys the message that we are fully confident of our strength and righteousness, and eager to fight back any villain.

The article concerns the effectiveness of the Russian foreign broadcasting in Europe and the United States in 2008-2016. The author analyzes the information campaigns around the South Ossetian conflict (2008) and the Ukrainian crisis (2014-2016); in particular the activities of Russia directed to protect its own interests in the information space. The tools of this activity are Russian channels and Internet resources aimed at foreign audiences. The effectiveness of these instruments depends on compliance with the targets set in such documents as the Concept of Foreign Policy and Information Security Doctrine. To assess the effectiveness of the channels the author employs such indicators as citedness and impact on public opinion, reflected in the opinion polls and surveys. The comparative study of the two information campaigns shows that the Russian international broadcasting could fulfill the tasks set by the government just partially, in particular, to make the Russian point of view more accessible to foreign audiences. However, it failed to meet the challenge of improving the country's image on the world stage, and at the same time did not provide an objective perception of Russia's foreign policy Disadvantages of the information campaign can be explained by the fact that the Russian international broadcasting was targeted at a specific audience, initially skeptical to the Western media, and did not try to extend it tapping new methods of information and cultural influence. According to the author, the effectiveness of international broadcasting can be improved by a more careful research of socio-cultural characteristics of the western audience and further adaptation of the Russian cultural code.

Analyzing the mainstream of the Russian realistic painting of the second half of the 19th century reflected in the West European press, which covered Russian artists' participation in World Fairs in London (1862; 1872), Vienna (1873) and Paris (1878), the author concludes about multilateral and concerned approach to their arts. The leading publications of that time ("Times", "Daily-Telegraf", "Presse", "France") devoted their pages to long reviews analyzing the works of Russian painters. The problems of Russian painting are described by such famous critics are F. Peht, T Taylor, M. Vachon, J. Klaresi, P. Manz. Reports of the western critics who mentioned indisputable progress of the Russian school in landscape (Shishkin, Aivazovsky, F. Vasiliev, Kuindzhi), genre (Perov, V. Makovsky, Myasoedov), portrait (Perov, Kramskoy) and battle (Vereshchagin) painting, contradicts with the existing stereotype about mainly ethnographic interest in the Russian art of that time. The article also states that the European artistic critics was not homogeneous: German reviewers were interested mostly in religious, battle and national themes, English - painting art and political context, the most welcoming French - portrait and battle. Despite the recognition of the Russian realistic painting in Europe (strength, faithfulness to nature, coloristic achievements), vigorous support of V.V. Stasov, defending the Russian national art, many national journalists and cultural figures kept a scornful attitude towards it. As compared with the Russian critics the evaluation of Russian realists presented by European authors, albeit not without bias and curiosities, in general is more professional and it's of particular interest for modern understanding and interpretation of their works.

This paper is dedicated to the study of the influence of Russian classical literature on the shaping of the image of Russia abroad. The development of international relations depends to a great extent on the fundamental cultural dichotomy of "them and us". The image of the "other" is constructed in different ways; one of the most productive sources for it is the classical literature of the "other" country, for it broadens the knowledge of the "other" and helps to create a basis for mutual understanding in peoples' minds. The study is based on the principles of historical, cultural and textual analysis. As a relevant historical example the author takes the situation in the 19th century Britain, at the time of the war between Russia and Turkey, 1877 - 78. Anti-Russian feelings were running high in Britain then (the anti-Russian campaign of those years reminds the researcher of the present-day situation). Yet, what attracts the author's attention is the fact that some representatives of the British political elite, led by W.E. Gladstone (1809 - 1898), maintained a more balanced and objective attitude towards Russia. Gladstone, leader of the Opposition to the Conservative Government, criticized the anti-Russian campaign waged by the Conservatives. He accused them of hypocrisy and double standards, spoke for an objective analysis of the foreign policy of Russia. Moreover, he emphasized the moral value of Russian victories, wrote that Russia made the decisive contribution to the liberation of the peoples of the Balkan Peninsular. The author proves that one of the factors that influenced Gladstone's position in this political controversy was Russian classical literature. This conclusion is based on the analysis of Gladstone's reading, his diaries and his works "The Friends and Foes of Russia" (1879) and "Russia and England" (1880). The analysis shows that Russian classical literature made its contribution to the shaping of Gladstone's deeper and more enlightened view of Russia and Russian foreign policy. In conclusion, the author points out that this historical experience maintains its significance in the 21st century, for classical literature moves with the times, and Russian classical literature continues exercising its positive influence on the image of Russia abroad, building bridges between Russia and other nations.