“Fatherland and service”: the evolution of the social and scientific thought of the Russian diaspora
Abstract
As is well known, the social and academic ideas of Russian emigrants influenced the formation of Russian national identity to a considerable extent, and moreover, the spiritual and cultural legacy of the Russian diaspora is considered an important part of modern Russian self-awareness. The knowledge of some scientific methods of Russian émigré authors shows that their assimilation of new academic methods in Europe and the evolution of their creative abilities developed with the growing problem of retaining a national culture amongst European intellectuals. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explain the marked characteristics of their ideas, first of all the “service to fatherland” in émigré society in Europe. The research subjects are the texts of P. N. Milyukov, S. I. Hessen, and other authors of the journal Russkaia shkola za rubezhom (Russian school abroad) published in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, we inevitably need to seek a more appropriate term than “identity” from the publications in the same period for a clarification of the notion. Citation of a similar term, “identity,” from the works of E. Erikson would, for instance, be appropriate in our case. Hence, the objective of our research is fundamentally distinguished from that of modern Russian authors who had direct relations with their own country. An analysis of the subject leads us to conclude that Russian émigré ideas prevail even nowadays because of their dialectics between the national and the supra-national.
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