Western in the early 18th century referred generally to the cultural reaction of (mostly Western) Europe to the enlightenment that was happening at the time. Ru

Western in the early 18th century referred generally to the cultural reaction of (mostly Western) Europe to the enlightenment that was happening at the time. Russia did not have that movement, so Peter the Great attempted to "Westernize" by bringing some of the ideas into Russia via St. Petersburg, while still maintaining the traditional non-Western Russian Tsarism (I don't know of a better word than non-Western because Eastern doesn't really correspond to a broad culture similar to Westernism as thought of in Western Europe) This is the internal conflict of the "Russian soul"