The Turanian theory is one of the hypotheses of the 19th century about the Finno-Ugric peoples belonging to the transitional race between Caucasians and Mongoloids [1] .
In the 1850-1860s, the Polish scientist Francishek Duhinsky who emigrated from the Russian Empire to France, based on the Turanian theory and idea of the Slavic-Finnish anthropological type of Great Russians, developed the concept of the “ Turanian ” (non-European) origin of Great Russians (“ Muscovites ”) [ 2] .
Content
Turanian Theory of Dukhinsky
In one of his main books, “Fundamentals of the History of Poland, Other Slavic Countries and Moscow” (1858-1860), Dukhinsky reconstructed the differences between Poles and Great Russians in terms of their political structure, spiritual life, appearance and other features. In conclusion, the author came to the conclusion (prevalent in Polish literature before him) that the main difference between "Poland" and "Moscow" is the "blood" of the state-forming tribe. The Slavs of Dukhinsky are peoples of Aryan origin, and the Muscovites are of Turan, that is, Finno-Ugric. To the areas of "united European peoples" he attributed the Malorussians , Belarusians, Novgorod, Smolensk and Finland. "Moscow" by all indications for Dukhinsky refers to Asia. Initially, the Great Russians spoke the Turanian dialect, while the Slavic language was borrowed by them. The name Muscovites was unfairly appropriated by the Muscovites, the true owners of which should be considered the Little Russians and Belarusians. Autocracy ("Tsar") Dukhinsky called the Turanian tradition of government, not characteristic of the Aryan tribes. Another feature of Turanianism is “communism” - a preference for collective types of property instead of individual Aryan property [3] .
Responses to Dukhinsky's theory in the Russian press
The version of the theory of Dukhinsky gave rise to a reaction in the educational and scientific literature of Russia in the 1860-1890s [4] . The Russian historian N.I. Kostomarov in 1861 rejected the idea of Dukhinsky about the civilizational kinship between Poles and Little Russians, without denying the crossbreeding of the Great Russians. The historian spoke of racial prejudices [5] : “... More than once they thought to humiliate the Great Russians, proclaiming that they are not Slavs, but Finns. If this were true, is there anything humiliating in this? ... "Ethnographer A. N. Pypin considered the concept of Dukhinsky to be a consequence of the Polish dislike of Russia, and, in particular, the national mythology of Polish patriots, and claimed that this theory "Was inspired not by any semblance of science, but only by boundless tribal hatred ... to give an outcome to the accumulated hostility" [4] . The “Polish trace” in the origin of the Turanian theory of the origin of the Great Russians was studied by D. N. Anuchin in the article “The Great Russians” and E. Reclus in the description of the peoples of the Russian Empire [6] .
Most Russian historians were of the opinion that such theories were untenable, seeing only ideological motives in the concept of Dukhinsky [6] . Dukhinsky used anthropological argument in order to justify the need to restore the Commonwealth within the borders of 1772, including Ukrainian and Belarusian lands [7] . The article about Dukhinsky in the encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron says: “... Dukhinsky’s theory is only the desire to put on the form of a scientific system the political dreams and feelings of Polish emigration ...” [8] .
See also
- Turan race
Notes
- ↑ Leskinen, 2016 , p. 170, 171.
- ↑ Leskinen, 2016 , p. 168, 170.
- ↑ Leskinen, 2016 , p. 169, 170.
- ↑ 1 2 Leskinen, 2016 , p. 174.
- ↑ Leskinen, 2016 , p. 173, 174.
- ↑ 1 2 Leskinen, 2016 , p. 175.
- ↑ Leskinen, 2016 , p. 172.
- ↑ Leskinen, 2016 , p. 176.
Literature
- Leskinen, M.V. Turanian theory Fr. G. Dukhinsky and her criticism in the context of the formation of the concept of "Great Russian" in Russian science . - Slavic almanac . -M .: Indrik, 2016.