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Issue 2 (51)

THE URALS AS A BORDER BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA, OR ONCE MORE ON RUSSIA’S CIVILIZATION IDENTITY
Year	2016	Number	2(51)
Pages	113-117	Type	scientific article
UDC	94(470.5):913(470+571)	BBK	63.3(235.55)
Authors	Zubkov Konstantin I.	Topic	CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
Summary	The article analyses the results of scientific discussion of geographers and historians on the problem of raising geo-concept of the Urals as a Europe — Asia border and connected issues of Russia’s cultural-civilizational identity. The analysis is focused on exposing the potent and weak arguments of two positions uttered, one binding the origins of the considered geo-concept with the ideologically motivated strife of several scientists (V. N. Tatishchev, P. S. Pallas) for using it in rooting the results of Petrine “Europeanization” of Russia together with a new — Petersburg-centуred — territorial organization of the country; another stressing on far earlier, historically prolonged and complicated character of forming the ideas of the Urals as a Europe — Asia border, taking into account the reflection of Russia’s belonging to Europe in the sources of the pre-Petrine epoch. The article underlines that the role of the Urals as a border between Europe and Asia appeared as a accumulated result of several qualitative shifts in Russia’s cultural self-consciousness occured in connection with major turnabouts in viewing the world (the Age of Discovery, the Enlightenment), against the background of which a gradual increase in functional potential of the Ural region (customs boundary between Russia and Siberia, the region of mining industry) took place. In the course of discussion the need was underlined for further working collaboration of geographers and historians on this problem.
Keywords	Russia, the Urals, Europe, Asia, border, delimitation, geography, history, geo-concept, civilization
References	Калуцков В. Н. Граница между Европой и Азией по Уралу: историко- и культурно-географические аспекты геоконцепта // Вопросы географии. Сб. 136: Историческая география. М.: ИД «Кодекс», 2014. С. 215–227. Bassin, Mark. Russia between Europe and Asia: The Ideological Construction of Geographical Space // Slavic Review. – 1991, January. – Vol. 50, No. 1. – P. 1–17. Lewis, Martin W. and Wigen, Kären E. The Myth of Continents. A Critique of Metageography. – Berkeley; Los Angeles; L.: University of California Press, 1997. – xv, 343 pp. Newman, David. On Borders and Power: A theoretical framework // Journal of Borderlands Studies. 2003, Spring. Vol. 18, No. 1. P. 12–25. Wilczyński, Witold. Geografia i metageografia ziem dawnej Sarmacji // Przegląd Geopolityczny. 2014. Tom 9. S. 9–30.
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