--- Wojtek Sokolowski <swsokolowski at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I think most countries have developed similar
> self-righteous tripe in one form or another. Yuck!
> It would be interesting to do a quick survey of
> other
> country exceptionalism myths - anyone, please?
>
> Wojtek
>
The main Russian one is that there is an unbroken special line of development from Kievan Rus to the present that is a unique Orthodox form of civilization that features communal brotherly values, as opposed to crass Western individualism.
There are lots of competing variants of this: this was derailed to Russia's woe by Peter the Great or the Bolsheviks or Stalin (take your pick), or this was enhanced to Russia's benefit Peter the Great or the Bolsheviks or Stalin (take your pick).
There's also the "Russia is Europe's defender against Asia" meme.
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