МОСКОВСКОЕ КИТАЕВЕДЕНИЕ В 1960–1970-е гг.: ИНСТИТУЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ И КАДРОВЫЕ ТРАЕКТОРИИ РАЗВИТИЯ

Abstract

The crisis of Soviet-Chinese relations and Cultural Revolution in PRC had an extremely negative impact on Soviet Sinology in 1960–1970s. In response to the new challenges, a few years after the closing of Institute of Sinology and its merger with Institute of Asian Peoples in 1961, several new centers for China Studies appeared in Moscow, reflecting a big change in trajectories of institutional evolution or the transition from mono-centrism to a new stage of Moscow Sinology’s dispersion. These centers had their own specifics and were linked by relations of partnership and competition. The personnel policy was also greatly influenced by abrupt institutional metamorphosis. Despite the fact that the small number of Sinologists graduated in 1960–1970s, the scanty demand and shortage of vacancies led to a paradoxical overproduction of specialists on China in Moscow and Leningrad, which remained the main centers of Soviet Sinology. Weak dynamics and stagnation in personnel’s career growth were aggravated by the registration regime in Moscow, which cut off all regional Sinologists, regardless of their talent, experience and knowledge of China. Competition was also hampered by discrimination based on personal data, prejudices and non-academic preferences, forcing the talented scholars to change their jobs, adjust to political needs or stay shadowed by the party ideologists and “academic propagandists”. Normalization of Soviet-Chinese relations in early 1980s evoked no noticeable institutional and personnel changes, but Soviet Sinology faced the need for radical revision of old intellectual approaches and choosing the new ones. This paper outlines the trajectories of institutional and personnel evolution of Moscow Sinology in mentioned time. The concurrent trajectories of its intellectual evolution would be reviewed in another article.