Transformation of Russian Orientalism in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Works of A. Sorokin

Abstract

The article describes the ways of Kazakh nomads’ representation in the late imperial and early Soviet works of A. Sorokin in the discourse of Russian orientalism. Within the framework of postcolonial research, the most essential features of Russian orientalism are shown, such as the romanticized image of the “children of the steppe” and the spiritual impoverishment of the “Russian man”, the opposition of modernity and naturalness, the City and the Steppe, where A. Sorokin's own author’s myth construction also plays an important role. It is argued that in the new realities of the early Soviet period, the images of Kazakhs and the steppe could not get rid of the stereotype of the exotic East, of the paradigm "friend or foe" and were still considered as a testing ground for approbation of the "civilizing mission", Soviet modernization, where the authors assigned themselves the role similar to the "enlightened European". The Russian orientalism artistic manifestations in the context of the concept of "Europe - Russia - Asia" in the texts of the early Soviet period confirm the fact that even outside the imperial paradigm, the basic strategies for inventing the steppe as the East are based on the discourse of Russian orientalism.