Within the generation of Russian intellectuals, emigrated because of the Revolution and disseminated in universities all over the world, a new critical elaboration of Russian history was born. It was an authentic cultural movement; it called itself eurasianist, and their historical theses took the name of Eurasianism. For the Eurasianists, Russian history underwent an epochal turning point following the Mongol invasion and domination, which dragged Russian politics, economy, and culture towards Asia. It was the Asian cultural influence that dominated the most profound Russian spirit and made the country the beacon of future civilization, in contrast to Western decadent capitalist materialism. Nikolaj P. Ottokar was a highly respected specialist of medieval Florence, but he was also a Russian émigré, who desired to make his homeland known in a Western Europe that had an image of Russia mostly filtered through the most recent events and ideological paroxysm of those years. Ottokar belongs to that generation of exiles and dedicated two books (1936 and 1950) to Russia’s history. Through the analysis of those texts and the historical part that Ottokar wrote for the Italian Encyclopedia under Russia, this article (the first of a wider project on the Russian historian) aims to analyze Ottokar’s historical thought on Russia and understand whether or not the medievalist shared the eurasianist theses.

Srednii mir. L'eurasismo e la riflessione storica di Nicola Ottokar

Lorenzo Pubblici
2021-01-01

Abstract

Within the generation of Russian intellectuals, emigrated because of the Revolution and disseminated in universities all over the world, a new critical elaboration of Russian history was born. It was an authentic cultural movement; it called itself eurasianist, and their historical theses took the name of Eurasianism. For the Eurasianists, Russian history underwent an epochal turning point following the Mongol invasion and domination, which dragged Russian politics, economy, and culture towards Asia. It was the Asian cultural influence that dominated the most profound Russian spirit and made the country the beacon of future civilization, in contrast to Western decadent capitalist materialism. Nikolaj P. Ottokar was a highly respected specialist of medieval Florence, but he was also a Russian émigré, who desired to make his homeland known in a Western Europe that had an image of Russia mostly filtered through the most recent events and ideological paroxysm of those years. Ottokar belongs to that generation of exiles and dedicated two books (1936 and 1950) to Russia’s history. Through the analysis of those texts and the historical part that Ottokar wrote for the Italian Encyclopedia under Russia, this article (the first of a wider project on the Russian historian) aims to analyze Ottokar’s historical thought on Russia and understand whether or not the medievalist shared the eurasianist theses.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11574/202785
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