Ideas and Values: Britain and Russia in an Era of Transition

This article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the cognitive-rhetorical strategies prominent British and Russian intellectuals in context systemic crisis “era transition” process formation cultural/imperial/national identities Britain Russia seventeenth eighteenth centuries. The authors focus on identifying semantic shift cultural code emerging based material polemical works, sermons, travelogues employ historical-comparative approach. It helps reveal “golden ratio” code, i. e. value scale that undergoes cardinal changes tense intellectual discourse situation collapse universal picture world new ideas about man, society, state. study demonstrates an affinity between logic change dramatic collisions accompanied thinkers transition. Nor do seek smooth over contradictions contemporary historiography by offering their vision era.