The phenomenon of charity in Russia: characteristic features

Abstract

The history of Russian charity is full of vivid and amazing examples, as well as perspectives that distinguish it from Western analogies. The article reveals the characteristic features of the phenomenon of charity, which help to comprehend it more deeply. One of its fundamental foundations is defined as a deep and all-round relationship with Orthodoxy, as well as traditions of mercy that were formed in the pre-Christian period of the Russian history, and then became an organized public system for helping the needy. As a separate aspect of domestic charity, the relationship with entrepreneurship is considered, which left a unique phenomenon of the “golden age of Russian patronage” in history at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Keywords

• tradition of mercy
• charity in Russia
• Orthodoxy
• Russian entrepreneurs of the late XIX - early XX centuries
• philanthropy