- 著者
-
浜 由樹子
- 出版者
- ロシア・東欧学会
- 雑誌
- ロシア・東欧研究 (ISSN:13486497)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2005, no.34, pp.122-132, 2005 (Released:2010-05-31)
- 被引用文献数
-
1
1
The purpose of this paper is to revaluate Petr N. Savitskii's Eurasianism from a historical perspective.Eurasianism was an intellectual and, at the same time, political movement of Russian émigré scholars in the 1920's which defined Russia as “Eurasia, ” neither Europe nor Asia, for the first time in Russian intellectual history. Savitskii is said to be one of the founders of this movement.Recently, many researchers have begun to re-examine Eurasianism, particularly relating to the political and social situation of Russia in the 1990's right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In their discussions on Eurasianism, some scholars have mentioned Savitskii as an important figure in the movement. However, since most of them showed only partial understanding of the subject on the basis of a few limited materials, much work remains to be done to grasp his entire ideas and evaluate his originality and his way of thinking. This paper will contribute to a better characterization of Savitskii's ideas and their background, as well as his biography. This work is a partial fulfillment of my project to elucidate the historical origins of Eurasianism.Savitskii's Eurasianism emerged under the international circumstances soon after World War I, reflecting his concern of how post-revolutionary Russia could survive in hostile surroundings. Besides, the Bolshevik revolution followed by the civil war carried the whole of Russia to a crisis of disruption. On the one hand, to demonstrate the unity of multinational Russia, and on the other, to find out its unique character, Savitskii, an émigré scholar, developed his notion of “Russia-Eurasia”which, as he expected, would contribute to an identification of the vast multinational region, supposed to bridge Europe and Asia.Savitskii's arguments over “Russia-Eurasia” took various forms, such as the studies of geography, cultures and civilizations, geopolitics, and history. At first sight, they may seem to be different kinds of argument in different disciplines, but once light is shed on the essence, they may well reveal a coherent question of what Russia is, what its unique character is and how it should be. In this sense, it is reasonable to interpret his arguments as an interdisciplinary attempt to give some answers to these questions.The very uniqueness of his thought lies in the view regarding the relationship between geography and history. Savitskii considers geography, not only as a factor which retards human activities, but also one that serves as an opportunity for them. In other words, interactive processes between geography and human activities form history. In this regard, the geographical world “Russia-Eurasia” has been a place for economical and cultural exchanges which binds Europe and Asia together in itself. Savitskii found it a symbol of regional, cultural “integration” and “unity, ” overcoming the segmentation which Russia had faced at that time. As a result, he assumed that this historical role showed the significance of “Russia-Eurasia, ” an idea which turned out to be the core part of Savitskii's Eurasianism.