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The Resource The Gumilev Mystique : Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia, Mark Bassin

The Gumilev Mystique : Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia, Mark Bassin

Creator
Author
Summary
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the legacy of the historian, ethnographer, and geographer Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev (1912–1992) has attracted extraordinary interest in Russia and beyond. The son of two of modern Russia's greatest poets, Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, Gumilev spent thirteen years in Stalinist prison camps, and after his release in 1956 remained officially outcast and professionally shunned. Out of the tumult of perestroika, however, his writings began to attract attention and he himself became a well-known and popular figure. Despite his highly controversial (and often contradictory) views about the meaning of Russian history, the nature of ethnicity, and the dynamics of interethnic relations, Gumilev now enjoys a degree of admiration and adulation matched by few if any other public intellectual figures in the former Soviet Union. He is freely compared to Albert Einstein and Karl Marx, and his works today sell millions of copies and have been adopted as official textbooks in Russian high schools. Universities and mountain peaks alike are named in his honor, and a statue of him adorns a prominent thoroughfare in a major city. Leading politicians, President Vladimir Putin very much included, are unstinting in their deep appreciation for his legacy, and one of the most important foreign-policy projects of the Russian government today is clearly inspired by his particular vision of how the Eurasian peoples formed a historical community. In The Gumilev Mystique, Mark Bassin presents an analysis of this remarkable phenomenon. He investigates the complex structure of Gumilev's theories, revealing how they reflected and helped shape a variety of academic as well as political and social discourses in the USSR, and he traces how his authority has grown yet greater across the former Soviet Union. The themes he highlights while untangling Gumilev's complicated web of influence are critical to understanding the political, intellectual, and ethno-national dynamics of Russian society from the age of Stalin to the present day. --
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiv, 380 pages
Contents
  • The nature of ethnicity
  • Ethnogenesis, passionarnostʹ and the biosphere
  • Varieties of ethnic interaction
  • The ethnogenetic drama of Russian history
  • Soviet visions of society and nature
  • Ethnicity as ideology and politics
  • Gumilev and the Russian nationalists
  • Neo-Eurasianism and the Russian question
  • The ubiquity of ethnicity
  • The patron of the Turkic peoples
  • Conclusion : the political significance of Gumilev
Isbn
9780801445941
Instance
Label
The Gumilev Mystique : Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia
Title
The Gumilev Mystique
Title remainder
Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia
Statement of responsibility
Mark Bassin
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the legacy of the historian, ethnographer, and geographer Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev (1912–1992) has attracted extraordinary interest in Russia and beyond. The son of two of modern Russia's greatest poets, Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, Gumilev spent thirteen years in Stalinist prison camps, and after his release in 1956 remained officially outcast and professionally shunned. Out of the tumult of perestroika, however, his writings began to attract attention and he himself became a well-known and popular figure. Despite his highly controversial (and often contradictory) views about the meaning of Russian history, the nature of ethnicity, and the dynamics of interethnic relations, Gumilev now enjoys a degree of admiration and adulation matched by few if any other public intellectual figures in the former Soviet Union. He is freely compared to Albert Einstein and Karl Marx, and his works today sell millions of copies and have been adopted as official textbooks in Russian high schools. Universities and mountain peaks alike are named in his honor, and a statue of him adorns a prominent thoroughfare in a major city. Leading politicians, President Vladimir Putin very much included, are unstinting in their deep appreciation for his legacy, and one of the most important foreign-policy projects of the Russian government today is clearly inspired by his particular vision of how the Eurasian peoples formed a historical community. In The Gumilev Mystique, Mark Bassin presents an analysis of this remarkable phenomenon. He investigates the complex structure of Gumilev's theories, revealing how they reflected and helped shape a variety of academic as well as political and social discourses in the USSR, and he traces how his authority has grown yet greater across the former Soviet Union. The themes he highlights while untangling Gumilev's complicated web of influence are critical to understanding the political, intellectual, and ethno-national dynamics of Russian society from the age of Stalin to the present day. --
Member of
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Biography type
contains biographical information
Cataloging source
NIC/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Bassin, Mark
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Culture and society after socialism
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Gumilev, L. N.
  • Ethnology
  • Eurasian school
  • Soviet Union
  • Soviet Union
Label
The Gumilev Mystique : Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia, Mark Bassin
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-363) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The nature of ethnicity -- Ethnogenesis, passionarnostʹ and the biosphere -- Varieties of ethnic interaction -- The ethnogenetic drama of Russian history -- Soviet visions of society and nature -- Ethnicity as ideology and politics -- Gumilev and the Russian nationalists -- Neo-Eurasianism and the Russian question -- The ubiquity of ethnicity -- The patron of the Turkic peoples -- Conclusion : the political significance of Gumilev
Control code
ocn919041800
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
xiv, 380 pages
Isbn
9780801445941
Lccn
2015032013
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)919041800
Label
The Gumilev Mystique : Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia, Mark Bassin
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 317-363) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The nature of ethnicity -- Ethnogenesis, passionarnostʹ and the biosphere -- Varieties of ethnic interaction -- The ethnogenetic drama of Russian history -- Soviet visions of society and nature -- Ethnicity as ideology and politics -- Gumilev and the Russian nationalists -- Neo-Eurasianism and the Russian question -- The ubiquity of ethnicity -- The patron of the Turkic peoples -- Conclusion : the political significance of Gumilev
Control code
ocn919041800
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
xiv, 380 pages
Isbn
9780801445941
Lccn
2015032013
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)919041800

Subject

Member of

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