The Russian orientalist project in the far east at the beginning of the 20th century: the socio-cultural aspect of the «Yellow Russia» idea

Abstract

The article attempts to trace the relationship between the growing political and economic influence of the Russian Empire in the region of Northeast Asia in the early XX century and the development of diverse socio-philosophical and cultural concepts of the dialog between East and West, which unfolded, first of all, in Manchuria as the area of the most large-scale economic intervention, in the national socio-political thought. This analysis is carried out in the context of historical and philosophical research of some European thinkers of the XX century, whose views are most often expressed in the framework of the “theory of local civilizations” (O. Spengler, R. Guénon, A. Coomaraswamy, E. Said, etc.). The paper puts forward the hypothesis that the nature of interaction between Western European powers and the peoples and states of Asia was conditioned by the type of “sea” colonization associated with the absence of a land border between the metropolis and the colony, while the Russian Empire was a continental power that had a land border with the areas of its economic interests and a long history of cultural and political contacts with the countries of the East. These characteristics of contacts between Russia and the countries of Asia determined the peculiarities of the formation of the image of the East and cultural dialog with it in the sphere of Russian humanitarian and political thought. Thus, there is a clearly identifiable connection between the historical and economic development of the region under study and socio-political concepts