"PROVINCE ISSUE" IN POLITICAL THOUGHT OF SIBERIAN DEMOCRATIC REGIONALISM (OBLASTNICHESTVO)

Abstract

Aim. To reconstruct the basic provisions of the political concept of the Siberian democratic regionalism classics and show the "provincial issue” political narrative in their legacy.

Methodology. The study is mainly based on the tools of hermeneutic methodology. To implement the research ideas, the methods of political and textual analysis and the historical and biographical approach were used.

Results. The author established that the political thought of Siberian intellectuals was dominated by the  concept of the alliance of diverse regions-provinces which formed a single and integral state.

Research implications. The results of the current study can contribute to the development of the diverse spectrum of domestic political thought of pre-revolutionary Russia research, in which the legacy of Siberian regionalists is still fragmentary. At the same time, the study may also have practical significance for the development of doctrinal and conceptual basis for the implementation of modern regional policy in Russia. The results obtained can also be useful in the development and implementation of anti-extremist and anti-separatist policies of the domestic state, because the article, by means of reconstructing the provincialism paradigm in the political thought of the founders of the Siberian regionalists movement, demonstrates that true Siberian regionalists advocated union-state integrity, and separatist ideas were not peculiar to them. This approach makes it possible in practice to clearly separate the political ideology of the regionalists from all sorts of secessionist manifestations, often veiled by the “destructive opposition” under regionalism.