The Concept of Cultural Values of Peoples in the Russian Federation

УДК 343.1, ББК 67.408

Abstract

The article considers the concept of "cultural values" from the point of view of lexical, historical, legal, doctrinal, international and national legislative approaches. The author divides the concept into two parts, analyzes the concept of "cultural" and "value" separately, reviews the doctrinal understanding of the term, explores the historical development of the concept, analyzes legislative acts at the national and international levels, and deduces her own concept of cultural values. The topic of the article is relevant due to the lack of uniform understanding of the term "cultural values", which in turn affects the development and implementation of effective measures to counter crimes involving cultural values. The purpose of the study is to examine in detail and comprehensively the issue of the criminal protection of cultural values of peoples as such. The author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to introduce a uniform concept of cultural values, to give a clear, complete consistent definition of the concept, as well as consolidate "cultural values" as the subject of crimes provided for in articles 164, 190, 226, 226.1, 243, 243.1, 243.2, 243.3, 243.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The legislative consolidation of the concept contributes to the effective counteraction, prevention and deterring of crimes in the field of protection of cultural values of peoples. The protection of cultural heritage is one of the priorities, since cultural values represent the distinct history, traditions and unique identity of each nation. These values help to understand and respect the cultural heritage of other nations. In addition, measures to protect cultural values contribute to the preservation and passing over the protected values to future generations, strengthen national identity and social cohesion.