Significance of Cultural-Historical Approach for Modern Political Consciousness

The modern political science requires taking into account the influence of traditions, cultural and historical characteristics of society on political processes and political systems of different countries. Under these conditions, identity and tradition get back the right to direct political expression. Concepts that explain the state of society primarily from the point of view of cultural and historical factors are usually called civilization theories. The article aims at describing the foundations of the Russian-Byzantine cultural-historical type and its relationship with the Western European one. Scientific approaches to revealing the logic of interaction between cultural- historical and political-economic factors have been identified, and a method of world-system analysis has been proposed complementarily. It is concluded that stable political institutions in Russia have always been shaped under the influence of deep cultural and historical processes. During those periods when this pattern gave way to a mechanical choice of political institutional forms, crisis processes grew in society. In the twentieth century, a similar situation led to the emergence of the phenomenon of a "divided people" and a crisis of national identity. Society today is forced to overcome the far-reaching consequences of this crisis in the format of the special military operation.