The World of Russian emigres in the late XX – early XXI centuries. Е. И. Пивовар

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СКАЧАТЬ of association of fellow-countrymen or knowledge of the Russian language. As a rule, they were united in associations within the country. The founder and most active participants were mainly first or second-generation emigrants or citizens of the Russian Federation (as well as of other post-Soviet states) permanently residing abroad. Such associations were most common in those regions of the world where the number of Russian compatriots had increased significantly in recent years, for example in Italy, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, Norway, China, etc. By this time, the 20^th century emigrants and their descendants had been strongly assimilated and dissociated with the exception of communities of Russian compatriots in France and the USA. They were the largest centers of Russian emigration, which preserved the system of traditional diaspora structures (military historical societies, Russian schools and youth organizations, church parishes, publishing houses, bookstores, etc.). A key aspect of the institutional development of the modern Russian community abroad was the emergence of various communities on-line. The majority originated from international social media, feedback from readers of e-magazines in Russian, advertising needs of businesses that used the Russian-language Golden Pages and other similar information sources, etc.

      The public policy of the Russian Federation on the promotion of the cultural dialogue with the Russian community abroad promotes regular World Congress of Compatriots Living Abroad and the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots, as well as the activities of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, Russian diplomatic institutions and representative offices of the Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, compatriots living abroad, and international humanitarian cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo). The result of these projects was the Russian Centers of Science and Culture operating in the Russian community abroad under the auspices of Russian public and private organizations. They have helped the society of foreign compatriots to bond over their interest in the culture, language, modern life, and traditions of their historical homeland. At the same time, a considerable information space (including the Russian-language foreign press, literature, and the Internet) was filled with a lot of historical documents, memoirs, studies, popular scientific texts, which more and more fully revealed the complex, contradictory nature of historical ways of Russia and Russians in the 20^th century. Russian state institutions and public organizations working in the held of cooperation with foreign compatriots have created information portals that allow to develop cooperation and cultural dialogue on a global level.

      The key to understanding the essence of modern dialogue between the Russian Federation and communities of foreign compatriots is the ideology of the “Russian World.” The unity of the Russian community abroad and modern Russians is being created, i. e. it is based on a mutual recognition of the common historical past and tolerance toward it. In Moscow, a participant of the 5^th World Congress of Compatriots Living Abroad presented the idea of the Russian world as a civilized historical and cultural community:

      The Russian world is a planetary space with millions of people creating a Russian identity. And the Russian world does not need any proof of its existence! Here we have Russia with a unique and inimitable inflorescence of cultures of many ethnicities. There we have millions of our compatriots for whom the world without Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, Chaliapin and Hkhvorostovsky, Tupolev and Sikorsky, Rodnina and Kharlamov would be imperfect. The Russian world is a kind of noosphere, so to say, which includes both East and West. Rudyard Kipling once said ‘East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” but in Russia, as in the Lobachevskian Geometry, those that cannot meet nevertheless do meet.[15]

      An active promoter of the Russian world concept in the international information space is the Russkiy Mir Foundation and its centres overseas. It is noteworthy that the annual Assemblies of the Russian World are held on November 3, on the eve of the Day of National Unity. The Foundation, whose main task is to support and promote the Russian language worldwide, also implements the principle of moving to the future in line with a continuous historical tradition, focusing on new generations of the international community of the Russian world in all its diversity and uniqueness. Vyacheslav Nikonov, Executive Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, speaking at the opening of the Third Assembly of the Russian World in the MSU Intellectual Centre in 2009, said,

      The Russian world is not a memory of the past, but a dream of the future of people belonging to a great culture, who are acutely responsive to injustice, who care about notions of honour, service, who are constantly striving for freedom.[16]

      The concept of the unified cultural and spiritual space of the Russian world is extremely important for the further development of the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian Federation on compatriots abroad. It has been formulated for quite a long period of time. Obviously, the ideological and cultural gap that existed for decades cannot be bridged overnight. In the 1990s, when the Soviet historiography in Russia was being revised, including the period of the revolution and the Russian civil war, of the topic of the ideological confrontation between the USSR and Russian emigration remained highly politicized among the intelligentsia both at home and abroad. The dialogue with the Russian community living far abroad began to reach a qualitatively new, constructive level, when the Russian intellectual environment, education, and enlightenment systems and mass media established modern approaches to the Russian history which sought to create an objective picture of the historical process through a civilized and tolerant scientific discourse.

      The visit of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in November 2000 to Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois Russian Cemetery near Paris was a symbolic step in this direction. The Russian President laid wreaths at the graves of Vika Obolenskaya, a prominent member of the French Resistance movement, and the great Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Standing at the graves of the White movement participants, Vladimir Putin expressed the sentiment that was later widely reported in the press: “We are children of the same mother, Russia, and it’s time for us to unite.” In 2003, during a meeting with representatives of the Russian emigration, again in France, at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, President of Russia Vladimir Putin reiterated that the memory of the tragic events endured by our country should become the basis for joint fruitful work of the Russian nationals and compatriots abroad for the benefit of the future Russia. The same idea was put forward in the opening speech of Vladimir Putin before the participants of the 4^th World Congress of Compatriots in Moscow on October 26, 2012:

      You share a common concern for Russia’s future and its people, a commitment to be useful to your historical homeland, to promote its socioeconomic development and strengthen its international authority and prestige.[17]

      In fact, the same call was addressed to the citizens of Russia and their compatriots living abroad, the appeal for a consensus and unification on the basis of a common goal which is the peace and prosperity of the Motherland, regardless of political views, religious beliefs, professional interests, etc. It is on the same basis that a modern course of the development of relations between Russia and the Russian community abroad at the state and social level is being shaped. This course is aimed at cooperation in the present and the future.

      At a meeting with historians in Tyumen, Chairman of the Russian Historical Society Sergey Naryshkin also discussed the topic of historical understanding of the events of the revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil war.

      I believe that the centennial celebrations in 2017 should result in a deep reflection on the lessons learned and become a tribute to the memory of our ancestors regardless of their political beliefs. There should be no belated settling of accounts and division into who was right and who was wrong,’ said Naryshkin. ‘The revolution’s contemporaries have long been gone: both the heroes and the perpetrators on both sides. A century is enough to see those events not as a reason to split the society, but as a historical event, “a fact of biography”.’[18]

      The participants of the V World Congress of Compatriots said they were seeking СКАЧАТЬ