Disputes about Hellenism

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of chronology, geography and the essence of Hellenism. The author of the article, being a supporter of Konstantin K. Zelyin’s concept, criticizes attempts to explain this phenomenon on the basis of the spread of Greek culture or the evolution of socio-political psychology. As a specific feature of this period, it is proposed to consider the combination of the Hellenistic polis and the ancient Eastern monarchy that underwent a serious transformation. Rather significant changes in the economic (a combination of classic slavery with the exploitation of the labor of dependent tenants, the development of commodity-money relations), socio-political (the emergence of the Hellenistic monarchy and the Hellenistic polis) and religious and cultural areas (dynastic cult, Greek-Eastern cultural synthesis) can be considered as the result of this interaction.