Nomad traits in the character of Russians in the sphere of spirit and in material production

Abstract

The perception of the Russian people as settled is widespread among the Russian intelli­gentsia. However, many figures of Russian culture (from I.S. Aksakov to A.M. Gorky) noted the similarity of the Russian character with the character of nomadic peoples. In their opinion, Russians are also characterized by the desire to wander, the search for a better life, and in the spiritual sphere – dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs, the search for higher ideals.

Our article suggests that these features should be consistent in the material basis, in the sphere of material production, in the economic practices of the Russian people (Great Russians) at different stages of its history. Indeed, even V.O. Klyuchevsky pointed out that during the formation of the Great Russian (Russian ethnos), colonists from the south, who found themselves in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka rivers, used nomadic, slash-and-burn agriculture. This influenced the character of the Russian people. In the twentieth century, the creator of socio-natural history ES Kulpin-Gubaidullin developed these ideas, characterizing Russian civilization as combining the features of sedentary, statist (China) and nomadic (Turan).

Sociologist Y.M. Plyusnin showed how great is the role of otkhodnik in the economic practices of the Russian people up to the present.

Thus, there is serious evidence for the thesis that there is a kinship between the worldview and values of the Russian and nomadic peoples, as pointed out by both the Slavophiles and the Eurasians. Similar tendencies are present in the material production of the Russian peo­ple, both in the Middle Ages and in modern and contemporary times. One may disagree with Marxism that material production is primary, and spiritual culture is secondary, but the existence of a correlation between the material and the spiritual in society is an im­mutable truth discovered by Marxism. Using his methods allows you to better understand the origins of the values of Russian culture. This also makes it possible to explain the phe­nomenon of complementarity between the Slavic and Turanian cultures of Eurasia.