Shen, Yu. Development of the Ideological Philosophical School of ‘Eurasianism’ in Lev Gumilev’s Works

Abstract: The article is devoted to a wide scope of Lev Gumilev’s works and provides the philosophical analysis and systematization of the main terms of the theory of ethnogenesis and passionarity. The author of the article underlines the great influence of Lev Gumilev’s innovative ideas on the system of views of the ideological philosophical school of Eurasianism as well as the definitions of the terms ‘ethnogenesis’ and ‘passionarity’. The author describes the methods used by Lev Gumilev to study the process of creation and disintegration of ethnic groups and the influence of these methods on the establishment and evolution of classical Eurasianism in the first quarter of the XXth century. According to the author, the problems of ethnos can be studied only at the confluence of the three branches of science, history, geography (landscape science) and biology (environmental studies and genetics). The author keeps to the comprehensive approach and objectivity principle. In his research he has also used the method of the comparative philosophical analysis. In the course of his research the author has used sources and literature according to the principles of the academic ethics. Within the framework of the theory of ethnogenesis, development of each ethnos is being viewed as an organic phenomenon and development of a living organism. Passionarity forms ethnos and changes in the number of passionarities growing with time change the age of ethnos, too, i.e. the ‘phase of ethnos’. Disregarding one’s ethnicity and cultural features there are moments when people easily maintain friendly ethnic relations and there are cases when different ethnoses are not willing to contact and even fight. Behavioral patterns may change depending on the phase of ethnogenesis. The cultural explosion is usually accompanied with the decaying passionarity. Ethnoses exist in the harmony with their native landscape. According to Gumilev, the deciding factor in determining a super-ethnos is neither the size or the power of ethnos but the degree of the inter-ethnic congeniality.

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