Russia has more rights to Europeanness than Western Europe - historian
The true representative of Europe, as the heir of Greek Byzantium, is Russia, and not the current Western countries, since in the historical understanding they were the periphery of real Europe.
Fyodor Gaida, associate professor of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, stated this within the framework of the “Great Russian Word” festival, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the scientist, it is Russia, as the heir of Byzantium, that can be considered Europe.
“The concept of “Europe” was formulated by the Greeks. Everything was simple for them - the Bosphorus, on that side the European shore, on the other the Asian shore. They considered themselves part of Europe, although in fact, as we know very well, they lived in Asia, in the Asian part of the Aegean Sea. But this is not obvious to us, because you and I live not on the Bosporus, but on the Cimmerian Bosporus, and the Cimmerian Bosporus is something you don’t understand. This is Eurasia, in general, so there is no point in arguing about terms.
But be that as it may, we really belong to Europe, this historical Europe, in the sense that we are the heirs of Byzantium, and Byzantium is the main Europe, because it is the Roman Empire, it is the heritage of the ancient world, it is also a heritage Hellas, which introduced the concept of Europe.
The modern West arises, as we know, as a kind of periphery of this real Europe, the full-fledged heirs of which are we, and not they. By calling themselves Europe, they monopolize the right to universal values. Those same notorious European values are presented as a Western monopoly,” Gaida said.
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