Contour map

Where the homeland begins is known to everyone, with the possible exception of the very young, who may think that it begins, say, with a Shock bar. And so, in principle, it is clear that the homeland begins with a picture in your primer, with good and faithful comrades living in the next yard. It is also known that now a birch tree, now a rowan tree, a willow bush over the river is our native land, forever loved, where else can you find something like this? Of course, colossal human potential is also an integral part of the homeland. This potential is realized in different ways: sometimes in forms that would be a credit to any homeland, such as the hydrogen bomb, Shostakovich, Quiet Don, hockey, ballet and figure skating. Sometimes it’s different. In addition to human capital, the motherland has enormous natural resources. However, the homeland apparently still owes its human potential and natural capital to its size. After all, in addition to birch and rowan trees, the homeland includes mountains and seas, tundra and forest-steppe, subtropics and permafrost. Everything, in general, is included in it, except for the tropics and jungle. There is a place for people to live, and a place to pump oil from. For this, the homeland should obviously be grateful, although it is not clear to whom.

It is equally not clear who is to blame for the fact that the native spaces are so spacious. There is no doubt that the spaciousness of the homeland, like any outstanding property, has its downsides. For example, some coals are found in abundance in such remote parts of the homeland that she cannot afford to use them - it is too expensive to build too long roads. Or in some secluded corners of the homeland there is no hot water for months and, on the contrary, it happens that criminals head municipalities and even entire regions - as they say, you can’t keep track of everything. In addition, one should apparently add permafrost, floods and droughts that occur here and there.

However, the system of argumentation that justifies economic ruin, the imperfection of the social structure and the unevenness of the cultural landscape by the “too large” size of the economy and the harsh climate has long become a commonplace and has gone out of fashion. Today you cannot find a single convincing specialist who advocates the theory of geographical determinism. This has been irrevocably declared a heresy not only in scientific, but even in geopolitical circles far from science. However, the question of whether we have too much homeland still comes up often. Some even build speculative theories around this issue, according to which everything that is possible should be separated from the homeland, and the rest should be managed carefully. To paraphrase a famous statement by Boris Yeltsin, supporters of a more compact country urge politicians to take as much homeland as they can swallow, and also compare Russia to the Tsar Bell, which is good for everyone, but does not hang and ring.

However, such speculation is the lot and privilege of free thinkers. Those in charge are racking their brains over how to organize vast expanses, based on the fact that there can never be too much homeland (for this they are usually called “politicians with imperial ambitions”). The idea of ​​gradual development of the country also implies the need to carry out at least an inventory of everything available in it. In relation to the vast Russian expanses, the primary inventory, obviously, should be considered the demarcation of the state borders of Russia. Meanwhile, according to experts, the situation with borders in Russia is even worse than with roads. So the subject of discussion may be not only the question of where the homeland begins, but also the question of where it ends.

The point, of course, is not a matter of right or wrong of the “disintegrators,” on the one hand, and the “imperialists,” on the other. The fact is that the homeland is what it is, and no longer what it is. It’s too big for some, too small for others. That's right, very unkempt. It is amazing how big a role the size of the homeland plays in the minds of fellow citizens. Sociological surveys demonstrate the surprising optimism of citizens reflecting on the (symptomatic) topic “Changing the role of Russia in the current foreign policy situation” (see FOM materials in this issue). In principle, the citizens of a country that consistently ranks not first in the list of even developing countries have no reason to predict a great-power fate for Russia, which they themselves quite soberly admit. However, they are strong in their faith. What fuels this belief of Russians, who once had a great past and sooner or later (at least according to the theory of random numbers) will have a great future? Perhaps the source of faith is hidden in the almost only treasure that they have in the present - in the vast territory of Russia. And, perhaps, if these open spaces - a path and truncated by history - are turned from a source of pride into a place that it is time to live humanly, faith will have reinforcement in the form of deeds.

The pride of living on 1/6 of the land is inexplicable and irrational. Whatever your political or geopolitical beliefs, 1/8 sounds inherently worse. No matter how you feel about the nature and causes of the Chechen War, it is difficult not to be saddened by at least a light sadness, sorting through hand-painted watercolor geographical cards with images of all Russian provinces, made for children and youth in 1858. This is a naive and educational portrait of the Russia we have lost, and Govorukhin certainly rests here. The question of whether it is not easier for a mare when half the empire is in the bag has the right to remain open. At least because there are more pressing issues.

If anyone had the right to make complaints about the excessiveness of the imperial Soviet space, it was a simple Soviet schoolboy sweating over an outline map of the country. Especially in high school, when it came to the mind-numbingly boring economic geography - in addition to the winding and long border, you also need to carefully depict all the minerals - more than 20 items in the assortment. It’s better not to erase with an eraser that costs 3 kopecks. A normal student's grade is still hardly satisfactory. A dried out and unappetizing object, whether it’s about Columbus or a kangaroo.

Any, even the most superficial attempt to study the Russian space with everything that grows, lives, lies, lives, dies and thinks on it, immediately reveals the main problem of this very space: it does not know itself at all. Especially in the part that concerns not what lies, but what thinks. The space of Russia is a little-studied and self-understood object.

That is, the map remains a contour map. To be filled out.