On the History of Eurasianism in Soviet Russia. Letters by G.V. Vernadsky, P.N. Savitsky and A.P. Zelinsky. Part one

Abstract

The publication deals with the little-studied pages of the history of Eurasianism after 1956, when P.N. Savitsky returned to Europe from the USSR. For the first time, archival materials are introduced into scientific circulation, which show the reception of ideas from the first generation of Eurasians (the founder of the movement P.N. Savitsky and the first Eurasian historian G.V. Vernadsky) to Soviet Eurasians L.N. Gumilev and his disciple A.N. Zelinsky. A.N. Zelinsky’s archive includes his letters and answers of G.V. Vernadsky, with whom he, then a novice scientist, was introduced to in absentia by P.N. Savitsky. Having returned from imprisonment in the USSR, Savitsky begins a large-scale correspondence, connecting scientists in Europe, the USSR and in the United States, spreading Eurasian ideas, which later crystallized into a methodology of interdisciplinary researches, focused on the fate of Russia-Eurasia, the rhythms of history, architecture, geography, Russian spiritual culture. After Savitsky’s death, G.V. Vernadsky and A.N. Zelinsky continued epistolary communication. Vernadsky and Zelinsky comprehended Savitsky’s contribution to science and his extraordinary personality itself