Konstantin Kustanovich - Professor Emeritus at Vanderbilt University with over 25 years of experience teaching Russian language, literature and culture, Ph.D., specialist in Russian literature of the 20th century and the history of Russian culture. In his new book, Roots and Crowns. Where Russian culture came from" Konstantin develops the idea that the centuries-old confrontation between Russia and the West is based on the unique history of Russia and Russian Orthodox culture, which had a tremendous impact on the formation of Russian national culture as a whole. It demonstrates and explains in detail the continuity of not all, but the main and extremely important aspects of Russian culture, from Kievan Rus to post-Soviet Russia. Among these aspects: features of religion, education and secular culture, collectivism and work ethics, traditions of morality and law, features of perception of someone else's culture and such aspects of the psychology of culture as the formation of individual consciousness and the continuity of culture.