Annotation

This article reviews, from a historical perspective, the problem that is of particular importance for the modern Russian state and civilization due to just another, however, entirely natural, antagonistic contradictions that underlie Russian and Western statehood. The article draws attention not only to the external aspects of the historical confrontation between Russia and the West, but also to the internal ones. They are associated with a persistent leaning towards the Western state and legal model, which has always been characteristic of a certain part of the Russian elite and government officials over a long historical period. Whether voluntarily or not, this circumstance has been fueling Russophobia to this day.