G.N. Potanin and N.M. Yadrintsev: through Patriotic Enlightenment to Ethnic Social Integration

Abstract

The article reconstructs the role of patriotic enlightenment in a harmonious social integration of ethnic communities, clearly presented in the ideological legacy of the founders of the Siberian regionalism G.N. Potanin and N.M. Yadrintsev. On the basis of wide range of published and unpublished sources the author shows that regionalistic socio-humanistic concept of patriotism appearing in the unity of spirituality, citizenship and social activity of the individual, is a strong platform for ethnosocial integrative unity. The author demonstrates that considering the patriotic consciousness as the most appropriate way to create a stable inter-ethnic social cohesion the founders of the Siberian regionalist movement tried to avoid racism or great-power chauvinism.