SCIENTIFIC AND JOURNALISTIC HERITAGE OF G.N. POTANIN IN THE DISCOURSE OF RUSSIAN ORIENTALISM: TO THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Abstract

The article for the first time raises a question of the need for a comprehensive review of the scientific and journalistic heritage of G.N. Potanin, an outstanding Siberian scientist, educator, public figure and one of the leaders of the Siberian regionalism. Based on books and articles by G.N. Potanin in the context of other figures of the regional movement (in particular, N.M. Yadrintsev), the author of the article draws attention to the fact that in the discourse of Russian Orientalism the following topics of Potanin’s creative heritage can be most fully considered: Siberia as the internal East of Russia, the Russian multinational state from “prisons of peoples” to “the affirmative action empire”, the Siberian identity of the Russian population and support for the nationalisms of the indigenous population. According to the author of the article, all these problems can be productively considered in the light of modern post-colonial theory, the theory of cultural transfers and the theory of Russian Orientalism.