Adapting to the Present: National Strategies in the Context of Global Trends

The article discusses the issues of modernization. The author supposes that capitalism is the only viable form of social organization in the modern world. Accordingly, modernization can be understood as a process of building capitalist social relations. However, capitalism is also variable and is implemented in different conditions. Modernization becomes successful if it is carried out in the form of a national modernization project – a unique program for a given society to adapt to modernity, combining creation of basic institutions of capitalism and taking into account the characteristics of a specific socio-cultural environment. Other projects can occur as mere experiments; any attempt to completely copy a certain model, albeit successful in other conditions, is doomed to failure. In the implementation of modernization, two mistakes should be avoided: rejection of the capitalist orientation and copying someone else’s experience. The latter usually manifests itself in the form of Westernization. The positions of Russian intellectuals are split between the two extremities. According to the author of the article, the greatest threat to the formation of a domestic modernization project now comes from traditional anti-capitalism, largely reinforced by the failure of the accelerated Westernization methods in the 1990s. It is no mere coincidence that anti-capitalism is taking on nationalistic and religious forms. One of the options to be considered is the “Orthodox socialism.” In our opinion, the result of the implementation of the program of “Orthodox socialism” cannot be a successful adaptation to modernity, but a political restoration, reviving the ineffective Bolshevik model in a different ideological form. At the same time, it is argued that a successful construction of capitalism in Russia is not only desirable but also possible. This is historically confirmed. In particular, history demonstrates the authentic forms of effective entrepreneurship that developed in Russia in the 19^th–20^th centuries in the Old Believer (Starovery) communities. The article concludes that the development and implementation of a national modernization project, which involves the construction of a capitalist model (taking into account the domestic socio-cultural reality) is a necessary condition for Russia’s successful adaptation to modernity.

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