I am Suffered Together with Russia. Interview with Andrzej De Lazari

Abstract. The interview with one of the prominent Polish Russianists Andrzej de Lazari, author of fundamental research on the Russian identity, social mind and literature, deals with issues of Russian-Polish cultural ties, troubles and contradictions in the relations between the two nations, the impact of nationalism and xenophobia in the mutual perception of the two peoples, the role of the scholar in confronting these threats. The historian, who is a descendant of Russian immigrants, but positioning themselves as “Polish European” and citoyen du monde (a citizen of the world), reflects on the oddities and paradoxes in interpretation of own and others’ identities by Russians and Poles, the meaning of own cultural identity of the scholar and the possibility of maintaining the academic neutrality in a situation of investigation of the social and cultural traditions, if he belongs to it.

Keywords: Andrzej de Lazari, the history of ideas, Russian identity, Russianness, nationalism, civicism.
Jan