“Where are We from? Where are We Going?” Russian Thought of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries about the Historical Ancestral Home

Abstract

The article is a historiographical and theoretical overview of the views of Rus­sian thinkers of the 19th – early 20th centuries to the question of the Slavic and, more broadly, Indo-European ancestral home, which are analyzed in a broad his­torical context with an emphasis on the cultural and ideological aspects of this issue. The article for the first time traces a number of stages and directions in the development of ideas about the ancestral home in Russian thought of the widest spectrum – from academic history to poetry and esotericism. The main hypotheses of the historical ancestral home are considered: Danube, which dominated Russian historical thought in the 12th–19th centuries, Central Asian, “Scythian”, European, Baltic, Arctic; the difference between approaches is analyzed, the reasons for changes in prevailing trends are established. The representation of the issue of the historical ancestral home in public dis­course is also examined, and its role in the construction of national ideology is explored. The features of the influence of the cultural and social environment on it are revealed.