Marginalization as Humanitarian Problem of the Russian Abroad: 1920s-1930s

УДК 930.85+94(47)

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-4-1059-1073

Sergey S. Ippolitov

Moscow State Institute of Culture, Moscow, Russian Federation

Marginalization as Humanitarian Problem of the Russian Abroad: 1920s-1930s

Abstract

Psychological state of the people who had to leave their homeland in the 1920s-1930s greatly influenced their social adaptation in exile and weaved a common humanitarian fabric of the Russian abroad. The article draws on unpublished sources from the State Archive of the Russian Federation and on the collection of periodical press of the Russian abroad stored in the Russian State Library (RGB) to study destructive trends in the milieu of Russian emigration that brought some refugees into borderland – marginal – situation. The research is to search in the historical retrospective for answers to the challenges facing the today Russian diaspora in the countries of the FSU and beyond, a recipe for maintaining national and cultural identity in the hostile environment. The problem remains poorly studied: in the domestic historiography there are few researches touching upon the subject. The research is based on the method of cross-disciplinary synthesis: legal, economic, psychological, cultural processes in ?migr? circles are studied as elements of the puzzle, the significance of which lies in the similarity of the trends of a century ago and those we observe in the national diasporas worldwide today. Marginalization as humanitarian problem of the Russian abroad resulted in denationalization, washing out of cultural identity, loss of mental and cultural unity with the homeland left behind. Marginalization was most dramatic for former Russian military servicemen, as their social adaptation in exile encountered most severe difficulties. For a host of reasons, Russian emigrants not just drifted to the underworld, but also joined criminal communities or became the victims of crimes, try to resist to this process as they may. Officers, or more precisely, the most educated part of the officership, by all means strove to slow down the process of moral disintegration. The brightest episode in this struggle was emergence the courts of honor, created by the Russian officers in places of their compact resettlement.

Keywords

Historical sources, Russian abroad, marginalization, social adaptation, cultural identity, Russian emigration.

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References

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About author

Ippolitov Sergey Sergeevich, PhD in Hisrory, Moscow State Institute of Culture, vice-rector for development, dean of the Faculty of State Cultural Policy; D. S. Likhachev State Research Institute of Natural and Cultural Heritage, leading researcher, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-985-970-72-63, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 27.05.2019, published (for citation):

IPPOLITOV, S. S. Marginalizatsiya kak gumanitarnaya problema Russkogo zarubezh'ya. 1920-1930-e gg. [Marginalization as Humanitarian Problem of the Russian Abroad: 1920s-1930s. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2019, no. 4, pp. 1059-1073. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-4-1059-1073