“North Slavic” Deconstructivism As Invented Tradition Of Russian Historical Slavistics

Abstract

Introduction. The author analyzes the revisionist concepts of the history of the Eastern Slavic languages. It is assumed that historical Eastern Slavic philology became the victim of numerous ideological and political manipulations. Methods. The author uses the methods of intellectual history, the archeology of ideas and the history of ideas. It is assumed that the methods proposed in nationalisms studies, including the concept of invented traditions, are also applicable for the analysis of this problem. Results. Analyzing the problems of the intellectual history of Eastern Slavic languages studies, the author believes that some historians proposed a revisionist explanation of the history of the old-Novgorod dialect. Some authors believe that the concept of "Eastern Slavic languages" is an invented ideological tradition because supporters of the revisionist approach exclude the Novgorod dialect from the eastern Slavic area, localizing it among the "northern" Slavic languages – a separate group that they distinguish, although other authors deny its existence. Supporters of the revisionist approach determined the old-Novgorod dialect and Lechite languages, defined as Western Slavic languages, as North Slavic languages. Discussion. In general, the author believes that discussions and debates about the number of Slavic language groups and the affiliation of its dialects are mainly a political problem, actualizing the dependence of historical Slavic philology on the ideological situation. Analyzing the history of intellectual discussions, the author presumes that conservative stability is the main factor that determines the vectors and development paths of the academic community, eliminating the possibility of revising the dominant concepts.