Siberian Regionalism as a Phenomenon of Social Thought in Late Imperial Russia

Abstract

Abstract This article considers regionalism (oblastnichestvo) as an independent direction in the history of Russian thought and culture. Four varieties of regionalism are pointed out: Russian, Ukrainian, Siberian, and Western Russianism (zapadnorussizm), which held the principles of federalism in common. The philosophical and methodological basis of regionalism was narodnichestvo (populism)—the ideology and movement of the intelligentsia in Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Narodnichestvo was against serfdom and capitalist development in Russia, and for the overthrow of the autocracy by means of a peasant revolution, positivism, and Slavophilism. The program of the regionalists was addressed to the provincial intelligentsia and was largely aimed at the formation of an intelligentsia called to serve their region. The program of Siberian regionalism is considered in more detail.