Russia developed outside every defining feature of Western civilization except a Byzantine-mediated classical legacy

Evidence

Russia had no or little exposure to the defining historical phenomena of Western civilization: Roman Catholicism, feudalism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, overseas expansion and colonization, the Enlightenment, and the emergence of the nation state. Seven of the eight previously identified distinctive features of Western civilization—religion, languages, separation of church and state, rule of law, social pluralism, representative bodies, individualism—were almost totally absent from the Russian experience. The only possible exception is the Classical legacy, which, however, came to Russia via Byzantium and hence was quite different from that which came to the West directly from Rome. Russian civilization was a product of its indigenous roots in Kievan Rus and Moscovy, substantial Byzantine impact, and prolonged Mongol rule. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 381

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lists the eight distinctive features that Huntington uses as his civilization-defining checklist.
• XREF: Connects to the civilizational-defining-elements framing likely established in earlier chapters (Chapter 1’s ‘universal civilization’ discussion).