Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 31

THE IDEOLOGEME OF REVIVAL AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF ALTAI NATIONALISM

Dmitriy Mikhailov

Siberian Branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
6 Nizhegorodskaya Str., Novosibirsk, Russia
damihan()yandex.ru

Abstract: This paper focuses on the one of the key elements of the national histories — the ideologeme of revival. This element allows overcoming gaps in the historic narrative, which exist due to the selectivity of social memory. The genesis of Altai nationalism is considered as an example of the phenomenon. The ideologeme of revival allowed Siberian regionalists to solve the fundamental problem of the inclusion of foreigners in the modern political process. In the beginning of the 20th century, the content of the ideologeme of revival was changing a lot. These changes depended on the social forces behind the Altai national project: breaking the traditional image of the world generated the notion of Oyrot in revitalisation sense; local intellectuals secularised these ideas in 1917 and set them at the service of nation-building; after that the soviet intrusion linked them to the ideas of liberation. Features of Stalin’s national policy led to the combination of the Marxist and positivist attitudes, the ideologeme of revival enabled the removal of theoretical contradictions between forming counter-narratives. The ideologeme of revival took the main place in the national processes of the modern Altai republic, which became multidirectional and conflicting.

Keywords: Altaians, Altai Republic, regionalism, nationalism, social memory.

To cite: Mikhailov D., 'Ideologema vozrozhdeniya i konstruirovanie altayskikh natsionalizmov' [The Ideologeme of Revival and the Construction of Altai Nationalism], Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 31, pp. 63–85.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/031/mikhaylov.pdf